Congress launches new campaign video, highlights Mahalakshmi scheme

The Congress launched a new campaign video on Saturday, 13 April, boasting about the benefits of its proposed Mahalakshmi scheme.

The video, released on the party's official social media platforms, seeks to draw netizens' attention to how its ‘pledge for women’ will lead to the upliftment and transformation of poor families.

The video showing the party’s Mahalakshmi scheme shows a woman receiving a sewing machine under financial assistance as promised in the Congress manifesto and how this becomes a turning point in her life.

The video emphasises the party's commitment to empowering women from poor families by providing them with financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh annually.

Sharing the video on X, the party wrote, “Mahalakshmi…Rs 1 lakh every year to a woman of a poor family.” It also used the hashtag "#haathbadlegahalaat to restate its pledge to bring positive change in people’s lives.

The video has been shared by many top leaders of the Congress including Rahul Gandhi, who captioned it: “Gifts of happiness will come to every home (Ghar ghar aayegi khusiyo ki saugaat)”

The Mahalakshmi video has garnered mixed responses from netizens. Some lauded the yojana while some others criticised it as mere rhetoric, claiming that it was economically unviable and untenable.

A user wrote: “This is a good ad, suggesting the Rs 1lakh grant can be used to purchase a capital good like a sewing machine, but what if it goes to paying a dowry or Diwali gifts? Poor urban women can be landowners with sharecroppers at home.”

The party also unveiled another video titled ‘Apni Dharti, Apna Raaj scheme’, which focuses on supporting the Scheduled caste and scheduled tribes community.