By Shefali Khan

february 1, 2025

Amid the political frenzy leading up to the 2025 Delhi assembly elections, scheduled for Feb. 5 with results on the 8th, all contesting parties—from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress—are actively courting women voters.

From 2013’s 63.2% female voter turnout, numbers rose to 67% in 2020, with the 2025 elections boasting 1.55 crore voters, including 71.74 lakh women. Political parties, recognising this shift, are actively courting this demographic with various schemes. 

Echoing initiatives like BJP’s Ladli Behen Yojna and Congress’s Gruha Lakshmi scheme, AAP has increased its monthly grant promise to women from ₹1,000 to ₹2,100 under the Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana. The Congress and BJP have proposed similar cash incentives.

Despite the proliferation of such schemes, their implementation remains patchy and has not uniformly met promises. In Punjab, for instance, the AAP’s promise of ₹1,000 monthly assistance to women remains unfulfilled, according to media reports. Similarly, in Maharashtra, led by the BJP in coalition with other parties, close to 200,000 beneficiaries are yet to receive what was promised. On the other hand, states like Karnataka, where the Congress-led government has implemented the Gruha Lakshmi scheme, have seen a rise in taxes to fund these initiatives.

Economists worry these schemes might create dependency rather than empowerment, potentially straining state budgets and adversely impacting fiscal health.

The effectiveness of these women-centric policies, initially criticised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2022 but later driving BJP victories in 2023 and 2024, will ultimately determine if they empower women or merely serve as electoral incentives.