Welfare schemes such as Lakshmir Bhandar introduced by the Mamata Banerjee government over the past few years might have helped the Trinamool Congress reap benefits in this year’s Lok Sabha polls in which it bagged 29 seats, seven more from 22 in 2019, felt some bureaucrats.

Moreover, the decision to spend handsomely from the state exchequer to clear the dues of nearly 59 lakh MGNREGA job card holders also worked after the Centre halted funds to Bengal. It was the same with rural housing.

The Telegraph took a closer look at the schemes that helped the TMC pare down the BJP from 18 to 12 in Bengal.

Women's nest egg

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee increased financial aid for nearly 2.11 crore beneficiaries under the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme from April this year. The state government had enhanced the benefit to ₹1,000 from ₹500 a month for general category women and to ₹1,200 from ₹1,000 a month for SC/ST women from April this year. The timing of the hike helped TMC woo women voters. The state had allotted over ₹15,000 crore to pay the benefits to women aged between 25 and 60 years. The scheme began just after the 2021 Assembly polls as it was Mamata's poll promise. Its benefits were enhanced for the first time just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

“The timing was excellent. The enhanced benefits were announced in the state budget in February and implemented in April. Beneficiaries started getting the benefits from May. As most Lok Sabha constituencies went to the polls in May and June 1, the scheme heavily worked in the TMC's favour,” said a political observer.

MGNREGA pay

The TMC decided to clear the dues of nearly 59 lakh MGNREGA workers from the state exchequer just ahead of the polls. The Bengal government spent ₹2,800 crore to clear the dues pending from December 2021.

“Each job card holder received ₹3,000 on an average, a handsome amount for a rural worker. As they were not getting jobs under the 100 days’ job scheme over the past two years, the amount helped them a lot,” said a senior government official.

It also helped the ruling TMC to come down heavily on the BJP-led Centre for not clearing the dues of the poor who worked under the scheme.

“Once the state exchequer cleared the dues the TMC could convince people that the BJP-led Centre was depriving them unnecessarily. This was another reason why the BJP lost seats like Jhargram, Midnapore, Hooghly and East Burdwan where the number of job card holders is very high,” said a source.

Rural roads

The decision to repair nearly 12,000km rural roads by spending ₹1,200 crore from the state exchequer after the Centre refused funding, citing that the Bengal government changed the name of the scheme, also helped the TMC. Sources in the TMC said that when the party leaders visited rural areas under the “Didir Doot” programme last year, they received complaints about bad roads in rural areas.

“Since the Centre did not release funds, the chief minister came forward and spent money from the state exchequer to repair rural roads or build new ones. It definitely helped the party,” said a TMC leader.

Housing dream

The chief minister promised in her election campaign that the state government would release funds to build 11.36 lakh dwelling units in rural areas even if the Centre did not send funds under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). Sources said that the state had sent a list of 11.36 lakh beneficiaries after three-step verification to Delhi, but the Centre did not release the funds, citing irregularities in the state's beneficiary list.

Mamata announced the first installment of ₹60,000 would be given by December this year to 11.36 lakh beneficiaries. For this, the state would have to spend nearly ₹14,000 crore.

“People believed the chief minister as she had kept her promises in the past… and this helped the TMC,” said a source.