Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren's wife Kalpana has taken charge of connecting women with Maiyan Samman Yatra for the ruling coalition, complementing Hemant’s efforts to attract voters with popular schemes, to counter the BJP's star-studded Parivartan Yatra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the concluding rally of the BJP’s Parivartan Yatra in Hazaribagh on October 2 and also launch the Pradhan Mantri Janjati Unnat Gram Abhiyan (an initiative to uplift tribal-dominated villages) at the same place. This will be the Prime Minister’s second visit to the state in just over two weeks. On September 15, he inaugurated six Vande Bharat Express trains and addressed a rally in Jamshedpur.

The BJP’s Jharkhand Assembly election campaign has so far witnessed the visit of Union home minister Amit Shah, Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, Union health minister J.P. Nadda and Union rural development and agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan (who is also party’s Jharkhand election in-charge) along with chief ministers of several BJP-ruled states especially Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (party’s co-incharge of Jharkhand election), Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav, Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi at various districts during the Parivartan Yatra.

Kalpana Soren at the Maiya Samman Yatra in West Singhbhum on Sunday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Going by the crowd of women supporters, Gandey MLA Kalpana Soren's Maiya Samman Yatra seems to be a “significant political wave” and a “masterstroke’ by the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government, feel political observers.

The Maiya Samman Yatra started in Garhwa district on September 23.

“Kalpana Soren's Maiyan Samman Yatra is capturing the attention of women voters, especially her style of having dinner with women at various districts. It is clear that the women attending the rally are not political supporters by the manner in which the women carried umbrellas and drenched in rain to flock her. The yatra is a significant political wave and with its strategic focus on women voters, could indeed prove to be a masterstroke for the JMM,” claimed Ranchi-based political columnist Ashok Verma.

“It is not an electoral campaign — it’s an effort to underscore the empowerment of women through the Soren government’s welfare initiatives,” claimed JMM central general secretary and party spokesperson Vinod Pandey.

The yatra is named after the Maiya Samman Yojana, a state government scheme where women aged 18 to 50 years receive ₹1,000 each month.

In addition to the Maiya Samman Yojana, Kalpana Soren has used the yatra to remind women of the numerous other welfare schemes launched by the Hemant Soren government. These include the Savitribai Phule Pension Scheme, which provides financial security to girl students; the Birsa Harit Gram Yojana, aimed at improving the livelihoods of rural women through agro-based industries; and the Guruji Credit Card Scheme, which offers easy credit for higher studies.