What’s common in the Assembly polls in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh? All three states have returned incumbent governments and the victories have been powered by women voters.

Before the Assembly polls, the ruling alliances in all three states were speculated to be facing anti-incumbency. Yet, the INDIA bloc clinched the Jharkhand polls, while Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh (in 2023) were won by the NDA.

Behind all these victories were cash handout schemes for women, announced or tweaked just ahead of the elections. That these schemes had an impact was reflected in the increased voting percentage of women in these states.

In the past decade, women have emerged as a new vote bank that appears to be voting on more than just identity and emotive issues. Given that they make up the largest vote bank of all at almost half the electorate, every party has been rolling out schemes that either support their empowerment through representation or reservation in government jobs or put money directly in their hands.

In Maharashtra, where the NDA won over three-fourths of the seats after pre-poll speculation of a tough contest, the women voting percentage has risen by almost 6 percentage points compared to the 2019 polls in the state.

Following the NDA’s rout in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, the Eknath Shinde government rolled out the Ladki Bahin Yojana, transferring ‘1,500 to women with an annual family income below Rs 2.5 lakh. In five districts of the state — Pune, Thane, Nashik, Solapur and Nagpur — which recorded the highest number of beneficiaries under the scheme, the women voting percentage rose by more than 6 percentage points compared to the last elections.

In Jharkhand, where Chief Minister Hemant Soren was facing not only anti-incumbency but also corruption allegations, with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arresting the CM earlier this year, the government rolled out the Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana in August this year. Under the scheme, all women in the age group of 18-50 years get Rs 1,000 per month. Soren promised to increase it to Rs 2,500 per month from December 2024.

During the polls, women voters outnumbered men in 85% of the seats in the state. On 68 out of 81 seats, women’s turnout was higher than that of men. The women voting percentage jumped from 67% in 2019 to over 70% this time.

In Madhya Pradesh, where Shivraj Singh Chauhan was facing anti-incumbency after a 15-year rule, the state government rolled out the Mukhyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana in January 2023. Under the scheme, women were handed out doles of Rs 1,000 every month. This was later increased to Rs 1,250. In the Assembly elections that followed, women voter turnout increased by over two percentage points and the BJP swept the polls.

In the Maharashtra and Jharkhand polls, the NDA had also relied on communal discourse with “Batenge to katenge” and “Ek hain to safe hain” slogans as the overarching narrative. It was more shrill in Jharkhand where “infiltration” in tribal areas was made an issue. The differing results for the NDA in the two states may indicate again that schemes targeting women had a greater role to play.

In all of this, however, Rajasthan turned out to be an exception. The erstwhile Ashok Gehlot government, too, had rolled out several schemes for women, including distribution of smartphones, free sanitary napkins and cheaper gas cylinders. They differed from schemes in MP, Maharashtra and Jharkhand in not being cash dole. Despite Gehlot’s schemes being popular, the Congress lost the polls to the BJP.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was the first to identify women as a separate vote bank. He rolled out multiple schemes targeting them. The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh was among the first to start cash schemes for women. In 2020, the YSRCP government launched the Jagananna Amma Vodi scheme that gave out Rs 15,000 per year to mothers for sending their children to school. The TDP government under Chandrababu Naidu has continued the dole under a new scheme.

In 2021, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee launched the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme that gives Rs 1,000 every month to economically disadvantaged women. Many say, this helped Banerjee stall the BJP surge in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.

Many state governments have started cash doles for women. In Karnataka, the Congress government launched the Gruha Lakshmi scheme after coming to power in August last year. The scheme offers Rs 2,000 every month to the woman head of a BPL family.

In September last year, the DMK government launched Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam, a women-centric scheme wherein one crore women would be paid Rs 1,000 per month. In December that year, the Congress government in Telangana, which had just come to power, launched the Mahalaxmi scheme, which allows free bus rides for women and hands out cash doles of Rs 2,500 per month.

The BJP government in Chhattisgarh announced the Mahtari Vandan Yojana in March this year where Rs 1000 is given to eligible married women.

In Odisha, the BJP government announced the Subhadra scheme for women shortly after coming to power earlier this year. Under the scheme, poor women would be paid Rs 50,000 over five years.

The AAP-led Delhi government, which will face Assembly polls next year, has already announced Mukhyamantri Mahila Samman Yojana where women above 18 years of age will be given Rs 1000 every month.