Though there are several politicians who champion the cause of simultaneous elections for both Parliament and State Assemblies yet the truth is that separate polls sometimes prompt the governments in power to remain vigilant and pay attention towards the people. At the same time frequent elections provide them more opportunities to undertake developmental schemes and even announce freebies.
But many critics are of the view that such election-eve ‘lollipops’ are not always good for the economy and lead to uneven development.
For example, in this year’s Union Budget generous allocations have been made in infrastructure sector and other projects for poll-bound Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal as well as Assam. Most of the projects are related to the construction of National Highways as well as Metro rails in Kochi and Chennai. While Tamil Nadu got 3,500 kms long National Highways worth Rs 1.03 lakh crore, Kerala received Rs 65,000 crore for 1,100 kms of NHs. This includes Mumbai-Kanyakumari National Highway.
Besides, Rs 63,000 crore and Rs 1,957 crores have been allocated for Chennai and Kochi Metro rail projects.
Special attention has been paid to the tea gardens of Assam and West Bengal. Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed Rs 1,000 crore for the welfare of tea workers, especially women and their children.
Contrast this with the poorest state, Bihar, which went to polls recently, but had found hardly any mention in the 2021-22 Budget. Bihar, in fact, got the election-year bonanza last year.
The opposition DMK leader in Tamil Nadu, M K Stalin, criticised the Narendra Modi government for ignoring his state for six years and announcing a lollipop just before the election. The Congress party in Kerala too flayed the Centre on this count.
But the truth is that such election-eve announcements are not new. Stalin’s father Karunanidhi too had indulged in such populist measures when he was the chief minister of the state.
In 2011 election in Tamil Nadu the Election Commission had to intervene and had to stop the distribution of colour television sets by the ruling DMK. In spite of the freebies Karunanidhi was voted out of power then.
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Singh Yadav too had promised tabs to voters ahead of the 2012 Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. He was voted to power.
A distinction should be made between poll eve freebies and the genuine scheme undertaken for the poor in the non-election season.
The governments of the states going to poll are often reminded of developmental schemes only several months ahead of the election. For example, the Tamil Nadu government has recently made Rs 12,000 crore farm loan waiver announcement. Under this announcement made on February 5, 16.43 lakh farmers who have taken farm loans from cooperative banks would be the beneficiaries. This is certainly a big announcement and not very easy to deliver, especially before the coming Assembly election.
The Tamil Nadu government is not the only one which is alarmed by the restlessness among farmers throughout the country. The Mamata Banerjee government of West Bengal in the Budget presented on the same day, that is February 5, increased the amount under Krishak Bandhu Yojana from Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000. Each farmer having land-holding of one acre or more is entitled to get this much amount annually.
As the finance minister in her cabinet, Amit Mitra was not well, it was Mamata, who herself presented the Budget, in which more attention has been paid to the old-age beneficiaries. Besides, a new scheme has been launched for all the widows above the age of 18 years.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on November 23, 2020 announced the Duare Sarkar programme, that is Government at the Doorstep. This programme started From December 1.
The BJP is accusing the West Bengal chief minister of introducing new schemes on the eve of election and not implementing the centrally-sponsored Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi. Under this scheme each farmer would get Rs 6,000 annually in three instalments of Rs 2,000 each. What the BJP leaders forget is that this scheme too was announced in the Interim Budget of February 1, 2019, that is just before the last Lok Sabha election. And not only West Bengal, in other states too the payment has not been made on time.
One often witnesses inauguration of big projects just ahead of the election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had paid two official visits to Assam and West Bengal within a fortnight – January 23 and February 7. He inaugurated several developmental projects in these two states on both the occasions. The message was loud and clear.
On the eve of 2015 Assembly election in Bihar he made five official trips to the state in the month of July and August. He inaugurated several schemes. In one such function he even announced Rs 1,25,000 crore special package to the state. The Centre and Bihar government would be in a better position to explain as to how much amount Bihar has actually got. But when chief minister Nitish Kumar was in the Grand Alliance, he used to accuse the Modi government of not fulfilling the promise. After the announcement of election dates by the Election Commission, Prime Minister Modi had addressed around 30 election meetings then.
As the coming into effect of the Model Code of Conduct bars all these exercises, the political parties have become much smarter. They have preponed the announcement of the pre-election bonanza.
When the Election Commission in 2017 had in two separate dates announced the election for the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assemblies, the opposition parties had strongly criticised the move. They were of the view that since the counting for both the states was to take place on the same date (Dec 18) why were the polling dates for Gujarat announced later and not along-with Himachal Pradesh. They said that the EC had given more time to the Centre and Gujarat government to announce developmental schemes. The Election Commission on its part said that the date of Gujarat election was announced later because of flood relief works and that election dates for different states have been announced separately in the past too.