Tejashwi Yadav, the Mahagathbandhan’s nominee for chief minister, on Sunday set up a battle of electoral sops with the ruling NDA, whose government had announced a slew of freebies in the run up to the Bihar Assembly elections.
The RJD leader pledged to double the allowances for panchayat representatives and offered them pension if voted to power. He promised interest-free business loans of ₹5 lakh to carpenters, potters and barbers.
Tejashwi, who had earlier promised a government job for at least one person from every family and permanent employment for contractual workers, avoided detailing the financial road map to his expansive welfare agenda.
“We have done a scientific study and it can be done. Tejashwi keeps his promises,” he said when pressed about how he would arrange the funds in a cash-strapped state.
“Once a Mahagathbandhan government is formed, we will double the honorarium of the representatives of Bihar’s three-tier panchyati raj system and gram
kachaharis (village courts),” Tejashwi told the media in Patna.
“Representatives of panchayats and village courts have been demanding pension. We have decided that they will receive pension and also enjoy an insurance coverage of ₹50 lakh.”
Tejashwi’s oversized promises seem to reflect a keenness to outdo the Nitish Kumar government’s latest sops.
Apart from hiking the pension for widows and the disabled from ₹400 to ₹1,100 a month, Nitish has transferred a cash dole of ₹10,000 each to the bank accounts of over 1 crore women under a rural livelihood mission.
In June, the state government raised the allowances and other benefits enjoyed by the representatives of Bihar’s 8,053 gram panchayats, 533 panchayat samitis and 38 zilla parishads.
Nitish has hiked the monthly allowance for zilla parishad presidents to ₹30,000 from ₹20,000, and that for the vice-presidents to ₹20,000 from ₹10,000. The monthly allowance for mukhiyas (panchayat heads) has been increased to ₹7,500 from ₹5,000.
Tejashwi’s promise of ₹5 lakh worth of interest-free loans to tradespeople such as carpenters, potters and barbers seems an outreach to the Extremely Backward Classes.
“Bihar is yearning for change; people are fed up with the government of the day,” Tejashwi said, with the alliance’s deputy chief minister nominee and Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahani by his side.
Asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s absence from the campaign, Tejashwi said: “The Mahagathbandhan is firmly united. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanaka Gandhi will soon start campaigning, and we’ll come up with our manifesto as well.”