'Superstitious' to believe women's aid alone will alone get poll win: Congress leader's swipe at DMK

Chennai: Senior Congress functionary Praveen Chakravarty on Sunday took a swipe at the ruling DMK's flagship women's assistance scheme, saying that although a welcome initiative, it would be "superstitious" to believe that it alone would ensure electoral success.

He said five out of nine political parties, while in government, that had announced similar initiatives had lost the polls in the last three years. This includes Congress and YSRCP in Telangana.

Chakravarty is Chairman, Professionals' Congress & Data Analytics and his comments came days after Chief Minister M K Stalin announced the government depositing Rs 5,000 to women beneficiaries of the 'Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thogai' scheme.

"The Magalir Urimai Thogai scheme is a very good welfare initiative; laudable that it has been implemented. But it is superstitious to believe that it alone will ensure electoral success," Chakravarty said in a social media post.

"In the last three years, only four out of nine governments in big states that announced such schemes won," he said.

Chakravarty also shared information on the political parties that had lost, and it included the Congress, with its "Mehangai Rahat" and "Griha Lakshmi Yojana," in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, respectively. The party had lost in 2023 elections in both the states.

Stalin had on Saturday said his decision to credit Rs 5,000 each to 1.31 crore women beneficiaries of the government scheme "surprised" the people and "shocked the enemies" who sought to halt the welfare initiative.

He had alleged a conspiracy by political adversaries to freeze the Kalaignar Women's Entitlement scheme, which provides a monthly grant of Rs 1,000 to women heads of families holding ration cards.

"We have thwarted the attempt to freeze the scheme, citing the upcoming Assembly election. Will I allow it to be stopped? That's why I gave a surprise to the people and a shock to the enemies. That is Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin's style," he said, a day after announcing that his government had deposited Rs 5,000 each to 1.31 crore women beneficiaries across the state.

The government had distributed three months' aid of Rs 3,000 (Rs 1,000 per month), besides providing another Rs 2,000 to each of the beneficiaries to meet their expenses during summer.

Chakravarty's swipe came in response to a news report featuring senior DMK leader R S Bharathi, who asserted that nobody would talk about the power-sharing issue after the government disbursed Rs 5,000 and CM Stalin having made it clear that accommodating allies in the cabinet was not possible.

Power-sharing issue has become a thorn in long-time allies DMK and Congress' ties with a section of leaders in the national party openly advocating for it.