Delhi Elections 2025: Curb Overspending, Need A Balanced Approach Towards Welfare Schemes, Experts Say

With Delhi Assembly Elections just a few weeks away, political parties have got their list of promises out to woo the voters. The city will be voting on February 5 with the vote counting happening on February 8. Competition for the 70 seats in the city is between three major parties - the Aam Aadmi Party, Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

🔜The parties are going all out on their campaigning and announcements of several welfare schemes. A trend that is seen in the context of elections in India is the promise of several welfare schemes by the political parties. A January 2024 report by Carnegie Endowment For International Peace, an international think tank, showed that since 2017, welfare schemes have reached nearly 950 million people across India and have accounted for $270 billion in government spending.

🐻Now in the race to win the Delhi assembly elections, the three major parties too have promised to provide several welfare schemes. But experts highlighted that a balanced approach towards the funding of these schemes is needed.

💜In other words, if welfare schemes catering to certain segments of the voters need heavy funding, the other portfolios or categories would be deprived of funds.

🍌In the light of the upcoming Delhi assembly elections, what are the welfare schemes that each political party has put forth to the voters.

Women Welfare Schemes

ไA flagbearer of a scheme for almost all the parties in the recent few years, a key scheme promised by the AAP is the Mahila Samman Yojana', under which women in Delhi will be given Rs 2,100 per month.

🌞Congress also joined the bandwagon of women welfare schemes where it said that under the ‘Pyari Didi' scheme, it would transfer Rs 2,500 per month to women of Delhi.

And the BJP ꦆalso said that it will launch the Mahila Samridhi Yojana which promises Rs 2,500 monthly aid. Additionally, the BJP said it will launch the Chief Minister Matritva Suraksha Yojana under which Rs 21,000 aid and six nutrition kits will be given to every pregnant woman in Delhi.

Schemes For The Elderly And Young

AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal ﷽launched Sanjeevani Yojana in December 2024 under which elderly citizens over 60 years of age will receive treatment free of cost in both government and private hospitals if the party comes to power.

For the unemployed youth, Congress 𓆏launched the Yuva Udaan Yojana which promises to give a monthly stipend of Rs 8,500 in Delhi for one year.

꧂BJP said it will increase the senior citizen pension for people aged between 60 and 70 from the existing Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500.Whereas the same for senior citizens, widows, divyangs and destitute aged 70-plus would be increased to Rs 3,000 from Rs 2,500.

Other Welfare Schemes

🗹AAP also announced an incentive scheme for Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) where the associations will be given money to hire private security guards. For the auto drivers in Delhi, Kejriwal announced five guarantees, among them the key guarantees include Rs 1 lakh for daughters' marriage and life insurance worth Rs 10 lakh for the driver. Additionally, AAP also said that if it comes to power, tenants in Delhi will be covered under the AAP government’s free electricity and water scheme.

ℱSchemes in Congress’ basket also include the Mehgai Mukt Yojana, under which the party will provide 300 units of free electricity, LPG cylinders at Rs 500 and free ration kits which will include rice, sugar, cooking oil, grains, and tea leaves. Congress also said that it will launch the Jeevan Raksha Yojana which will give insurance coverage of up to Rs 25 lakh.

ღWhereas BJP said that if it comes to power, it will give LPG cylinders at Rs 500 for the poor section, with one free cylinder on Holi and Diwali.

Need For A Balanced Financing

ꦺWhile parties are going all out on the schemes for the Delhi assembly elections, experts said that there is a need to have a balanced approach towards the funding aspect as more focus on one sector can lead to imbalance in distribution of funds and resources to other sectors.

🧜“There is a need to identify where the extra and unwanted funding is happening. Fueling funds in one scheme as it is popular will lead to an imbalance in the capital expenditure. Finding this using the parameters can help in evaluation and proper balance of all portfolios,” said Y Nagaraju, Assistant Professor, Department of Dairy Economics and Business Management, Dairy Science College, Bangalore.

🌺Whereas others said that there is a need to keep a close watch on the expenses and benefits of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes. Professor Justin Joy, Assistant Professor at St Pius College, had in a research paper highlighted that in general, the rolled out DBT schemes are an evolving project of the government that has to be closely watched and scrutinized to track the accruing benefits and the cost.