Sops for women & farmers in MVA's 5 Maha guarantees

MUMBAI: A day after chief minister Eknath Shinde made a series of promises should the Mahayuti return to office, the Maha Vikas Aghadi declared what it called its 'panch sutri' or five guarantees to woo voters.

Leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said at an MVA rally at BKC in the presence of NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray that the alliance is committed to providing Rs 3,000 per month to girls and women, as well as free travel by state transport corporation buses for women, under the Mahalaxmi Scheme .

The MVA also said it would provide Rs 25 lakh as family insurance cover along with free medicines, loan waiver for farmers of up to Rs 3 lakh along with incentive of Rs 50,000 for non-defaulters of loan repayment, remove the 50% ceiling on reservation and launch a caste census and grant Rs 4,000 per month to educated jobless youths.

All the speakers at the rally gave a clarion call for ousting the Mahayuti govt led by Eknath Shinde, saying it had failed on all fronts. They claimed that the Mahayuti govt was clandestinely formed by BJP in connivance with Eknath Shinde.

The MVA politicians said that a nationwide movement was required to protect the Constitution as the NDA and RSS were "all set to scrap it as early as possible."

Uddhav Thackeray spoke at length on financial assistance for youths. He reiterated that the MVA would scrap the Dharavi project and "cancel all tenders pertaining to the Adani project." Sharad Pawar spoke at length on the loan waiver scheme.