Before the Maharashtra Assembly election, the Congress started a ‘Laapataa Ladies campaign', which references the Kiran Rao-directed film, to draw attention to alleged ineptitude of the Eknath Shinde’s government in the matter of women’s security. The Congress campaign debuted across the state with the title "Laapataa Ladies" and a brief sentence in Marathi: ”How about “64,000 females gone missing within a year.” The poster also has silhouettes resembling Chief Minister, Mr. Shinde, Deputy Chief Ministers Mr Fadnavis and Mr Pawar, respectively.

Laapataa Ladies came out last year and quickly gained a lot of attention due to the humoristic but subversive stance the show takes against patriarchy and has since been selected as India’s official entry for the Oscars.

Laapataa Ladies Campaign
Image Source: Wikipedia

The Congress campaign also comes against the backdrop of the sexual abuse of two school girls in Badlapur of Maharashtra last month. It especially focuses on Mr Fadnavis who has the portfolio of Home .

Mr Fadnavis had mentioned in his August speech which he gave last year that out of the total women missing in the state, 10% never come home. He stated "Women's safety is a cause of concern for the country. In Maharashtra, around 64,000 girls and women go missing every year and during Covid in 2019 and 2020 the number was the same. In 2021, 61,000 cases were registered. 87% of them have returned home, while in 2022, 86% of the missing girls and women have returned. We have been taking steps to bring this percentage down.”

The Congress has now given the same figure to attack the Mahayuti government over its record on women’s safety. To appeal the  women voters in the forthcoming election, the state government has come up with the ‘Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana’ for women belonging to 21-65 years of age who are as yet unmarried and with a family income below ₹ 2.5 lakh, they will be given ₹ 1,500 per month.

It would be a tough battle for BJP, Shiv Sena and the NCP faction headed by Ajit Pawar who have formed the ruling alliance in Maharashtra. The Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maha Vikas Aghadi are one group while the other is formed by NCP headed by Sharad Pawar. Four months ago in the Lok Sabha election, the opposition alliance had performed extremely well by securing 30 of the 48 assembly constituencies in West Bengal. Whereas it shall be eyeing to capitalise on its poll outcomes, the ruling alliance shall aim to do an overtake in this election.

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