The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP-led Mahayoti government in Maharashtra of “cheating” millions of women under the Ladki Bahin Yojana, citing a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report that found about 6.2 million beneficiaries were dropped from the main welfare scheme. Party spokesperson Atul Londhe Patel made the charge during a press conference held at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here.
“Those who cheated the Lord, also cheated our sisters. They took away the rights of the ladki bahin just as they took away the offerings meant for Lord Ram,” Lundh Patel said, referring to allegations of misuse of temple funds raised by the party in the past against the ruling alliance.
The Ladki Bahin Yojana, Maharashtra’s version of the Ladli Behna scheme, was launched in June 2024 by the Mahayuti government, an alliance of the Shiv Sena faction led by then Prime Minister Eknath Shinde, the BJP and the Nationalist Congress Party led by Ajit Pawar. The scheme promised to pay monthly compensation of $1,500 for eligible women and has become a central focus of the alliance’s campaign ahead of the state Assembly elections, which have been moved from October to November 2024. Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also promised to raise the amount to $2100 and add $100 more if they return to power.
“We were told that 6.2 million eligible women were disqualified, most of them after the electronic KYC exercise which came only after the votes were counted,” Lundh Patel said. “The moment the election was won, the sisters were shown the door.”
He said the CAG findings showed that removals were mostly carried out after applicants failed the electronic “know your customer” or e-KYC verification process introduced after the election. He said some women were being delisted because they were above 65 years of age even though their Aadhaar cards had valid birth records.
“Didn’t your Aadhaar card have a date of birth when you first registered it? Why has its age suddenly become an issue today?” asked Lundy Patel, alleging that eligibility criteria are being selectively applied to keep out women rather than enroll new applicants.
He also cited the report to claim that there was a gap between the sanctioned funds and the money spent under the scheme, running into thousands of crore rupees, and said the state government had not given any explanation on record for the mismatch. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said, adding that departmental discussions indicate that the actual number of women potentially excluded from the scheme could exceed half of the total beneficiary base.
The Congress leader said the online application form for the scheme requires applicants to solve a CAPTCHA, a move he said was unrealistic for domestic workers and daily wage earners who constitute the bulk of the beneficiaries. “This form has to be filled out by a woman who cleans someone else’s house for a living. How are you supposed to know if a letter is in uppercase or lowercase?” He said. He also said that the scheme, unlike older welfare programs like the Sanjay Gandhi Niradhar Yojana, does not have a dedicated grievance redressal office where an aggrieved woman can appeal her deportation.
Lundh Patil said the party’s main demand is for the state government to re-register all the 6.2 million women who are eligible but have been deleted from the rolls, and release their pending monthly payments. “Register these women first, then punish those who deceived them,” he said, also calling on the government to identify the officials and political leadership responsible for issuing deportation orders and take action against them. He said: “Why do you always catch the little fish? Catch the one who gave the order.”
The Ladki Bahin Yojana is widely credited with helping the Mahayuti alliance secure a supermajority in the November 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections, with the BJP emerging as the largest single party. Since then, the program has faced questions about its financial sustainability, with officials at the state Department of Finance expressing concerns about the burden on the treasury even before it was rolled out.
The BJP-led state government did not directly respond to Lundh Patil’s press conference. Women and Child Development Minister Aditi Tatkare had previously defended the verification drive behind the deletions, saying the e-KYC exercise could not begin early due to the 2024 Assembly elections and the Model Code of Conduct, and that beneficiaries were given repeated warnings and the deadline was extended to December 31, 2025 to complete the process. “It’s not that the government has removed it,” she said, adding that eligible women continued to receive benefits until electronic KYC procedures ended.
Separately, government records reviewed by other media outlets show that the total number of women removed from the scheme, at more than 9.2 million, is higher than the 6.2 million reported by Lundh Patel, which only corresponds to removals due to non-compliance with electronic KYC. The remaining removals are due to household income exceeding the eligibility ceiling, government employment in the household, or benefits already received under other welfare programs. The number of active beneficiaries has fallen from about 24.3 million to just over 15 million since the start of the verification campaign in September 2025.
The 6.2 million figure cited by Lundh Patel is broadly consistent with separate media reports about the scheme’s electronic KYC deletions, although the full CAG report has not been made public and its other specific findings, including the funding gap it cited, cannot be independently verified.
