In Maharashtra, a rift has started appearing in the Mahayuti over the ‘Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Behen Yojana’. A Shiv Sena minister has expressed displeasure at the Ajit Pawar faction for removing the Chief Minister’s face from the advertisements of this scheme. After this, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis proposed an SOP for its promotion. There is a competition within the Mahayuti to take credit for the ‘Larki Behen Yojana’.
Just a few days ago, NCP had put up posters in the name of ‘Ajit Dada Ladki Behan’ scheme. Now posters promoting this scheme were seen in Baramati which had only the faces of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Ajit Pawar’s name was nowhere in it. In such a situation, politics started regarding this scheme. In the cabinet meeting, Shiv Sena minister Shambhuraj Desai had objected to the NCP’s promotion and said that why the Chief Minister’s name is not there in it.
Desai said, the faces of both the deputy chief ministers are also used in all the party’s campaigns. NCP and BJP are our allies. But in their campaigns, the word ‘Chief Minister’ was removed. Will this not cause a problem? After this, NCP also responded saying that after the budget was presented, posters were put up all over the state praising Shinde. NCP spokesperson Umesh Patil said, a plan was already made that Shinde would be promoted even for the budget. However, we did not say anything on this. Now if the name has been shortened for convenience, then why are our partners objecting?
Intervening in this war of words, Devendra Fadnavis told media persons on Friday that during the cabinet meeting, SOP has been proposed for the advertisement of this scheme. Under this, the same type of advertisements will be run in the entire state. Let us tell you that under the ‘Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Behen Yojana’, an amount of Rs 1500 is to be given to eligible women every month. So far, Rs 4887 crore has been deposited in the accounts of 1.59 crore women. A target has been set to provide benefits to 2.5 crore women under this scheme. Its enrollment deadline has been extended till 30 September. This scheme has been started before the assembly elections.