Mahayuti releases report card, says government has money to fund welfare schemes | Mumbai news

Mumbai: A day after the Election Commission of India announced November 20 as the date for the Maharashtra assembly elections, the ruling Mahayuti government on Wednesday released a “report card” of its two-and-a-half-year stint, featuring all the infrastructure projects and welfare schemes it has launched since coming to power in June 2022.

The Eknath Shinde government also insisted it has enough money to fund the slew of welfare schemes announced in the run-up to the polls that are expected to cost the exchequer a whopping ₹96,000 crore. The Mahayuti also attacked the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, saying the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government had stalled all the development projects and would discontinue the welfare schemes if elected to power.

The release of the so-called report card comes days after the MVA released a “Gaddarancha Panchnama” (charge sheet of traitors), which listed various alleged scams related to the Mahayuti and detailed the ruling alliance’s alleged rate card to buy MLAs and corporators.

The Thackeray-led government was in power for 25 months from November 28, 2019, to June 29, 2022, before Shinde led a rebellion in the Shiv Sena, split the party and switched to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s side. He was sworn in as chief minister on June 30, 2022.

The Mahayuti report card has comparative figures of the performance of the two state governments in the last five years. Shinde’s government has claimed that the gross state domestic product (GSDP) growth was 8.5% during its stint, as against 1.9% during the MVA regime. The government also claimed that Maharashtra had received a 33.12% share of the country’s foreign direct investment during its stint, compared with 27.9% during the previous regime. The report card added that the Mahayuti signed MoUs worth ₹5 lakh crore at the World Economic Forum earlier this year, as against ₹80,000 crore during the MVA rule.

The Shinde government boasted of having rolled out infrastructure projects worth ₹8 lakh crore across Maharashtra while alleging that the MVA government led by Thackeray had stalled key projects. It also claims to have disbursed ₹15,245 crore as compensation to farmers for losses due to unseasonal rains, compared with the MVA’s ₹8,701 crore.

Addressing the media, chief minister Shinde said his government has taken decisions that will benefit every section of society. “We held 60 cabinet meetings and took over 900 decisions in the last two and half years. The welfare schemes have been launched for everybody, from new-born babies, girls, women, and senior citizens to poor farmers. Maharashtra is now in the top position in terms of infrastructure and foreign direct investment. We have rolled out unprecedented welfare schemes. Ours is the first government to release a report card, and we could dare to do it because we have delivered,” he added.

The chief minister said his government wasn’t worried about the allegations levelled by the opposition that the welfare schemes were just election “jumlas” (empty promises). He assured that the government had launched the schemes after making adequate financial allocations. Shinde also reiterated his previous claim that the Thackeray government’s decision to stall projects like the Atal Setu, Samruddhi Expressway, and Mumbai’s underground metro line had led to a cost escalation of ₹17,000 crore. “Had this escalation not happened, we would have given more money to women under the Ladki Bahin scheme,” he said.

Shinde asserted that the Maharashtra assembly election results would be different from the Lok Sabha polls, in which the MVA won 30 of the state’s 48 seats. “We took a beating in the Lok Sabha polls because of the fake narrative set by the opposition related to changing the Constitution. The people, and especially Ambedkarite people, have realised [the truth] about the narrative,” he said.

Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnanis further attacked the opposition parties, saying they have realised they will lose because of the performance of the Mahayuti government. “We have performed in all the sectors and have brought the state again to the top position. The opposition has been claiming that we are shifting all projects to Gujarat, but the fact is that we have brought the state to the top position in FDI and other investments,” he said.

“We were targetted by the opposition who spread a fake narrative about the Ladki Bahin scheme, saying it was an election ‘jumla’. But we have successfully implemented it and credited over four instalments [of ₹1,500 each] in the accounts of 25 million beneficiaries,” he said.

Shinde and Fadnavis also denied reports that union home minister Amit Shah had advised the Shiv Sena to settle for fewer seats in the assembly polls as the BJP had “sacrificed” the CM’s chair for him. “Nothing of this sort has been discussed between us. These all are false reports,” said Shinde. Fadnavis added that the meeting in question was attended by just a handful of top leaders from the three ruling parties and what transpired is unlikely to come out. “The reports don’t have substance,” he said.

Opposition’s reaction

Reacting to the Mahayuti’s “report card”, MVA leaders said the people of Maharashtra had prepared the ruling alliance’s “deport card” and advised the Shinde government to release its “rate card” instead.

Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole alleged that the tall claims made by the state government were false and fabricated. “The state has been completely ruined by the agents of Gujarat in the last two years by diverting key projects to the neighbouring state. We, during the MVA government, handled the Covid-19 pandemic successfully, especially when other states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat were witnessing piles of dead bodies. The two and half years of the Shinde government have seen a complete collapse of law and order and division of society on the basis of caste and religion,” he said.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray said that “businesses and jobs have been deported from the state” under the Mahayuti government. “In the guise of announcing several sops in the last few cabinet meetings ahead of the polls, the government has benefited the Adani Group. We will scrap the illegal decisions once we return to power.”