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The BJP’s first government in West Bengal plans to retain Mamata Banerjee's hallmark cash-transfer welfare model.
BJP had earlier criticised of “doles” by TMC government, especially for women and unemployed youth.
Now, BJP as pledged to expand schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar, rebranded as Annapurna Bhandar.
Economists warn of mounting debt and underinvestment in infrastructure and industry.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed its first ever government in West Bengal on May 9, 2026, ending a 15-year Trinamool Congress (TMC) regime. One of the reasons for this turnaround, economists and political experts have pointed out, was the social welfare-heavy governance of the Mamata Banerjee-leadership.
But the new government's agenda indicates that these models, particularly supporting women and unemployed youths with direct monthly cash transfers, are set to continue in West Bengal. BJP had initially opposed the financial model but in its Sankalp Patra or election manifesto, it committed to increase individual benefits under these same schemes or 'doles' that were once Banerjee's political weapons and won her previous elections.
BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya accepted the political reality of pursuing the model even for a cash-strapped state like West Bengal before the election and assured that once the BJP comes to power, schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar would continue, rebranded as Annapurnar Bhandar.
“We made course corrections after initially opposing such schemes as they are clearly working as an election tool across the country, even during the latest Bihar and Jharkhand elections,” admitted a senior BJP leader.
In the 2021 assembly election, when TMC won with a vote percentage of 48.5 — a 10 percent lead over BJP — many credited the slew of social schemes for the victory. However, five years later, the similar schemes, which increased in number and cost — are under scrutiny for their election efficacy. In 2026, the positions reversed with an 8 per cent swing away from TMC, which got 40.8 per cent of valid votes, while the BJP received 45.84 per cent.
“Alongside the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) that triggered deletions in millions, complaints of large-scale corruption, joblessness and excesses by TMC leaders, Mamata Banerjee's government’s failure to balance spending in the social sector with infrastructure and industrial development were major reasons for the slide,” claimed a poll analyst.
Even a section of common people, beneficiaries of TMC schemes, started to doubt their future due to the state's worsening economic situation. “Two female members in my family get Lakshmir Bhandar and my parents receive bardhakya bhata (financial support for elders), I have applied for Yubasathi. There are other benefits as well. Overall, we tend to get around Rs 8,000 per month on average from government schemes. However, we became sceptical about how long this might continue because we heard that Mamata Banerjee’s government had no money. As the BJP is linked to the central government, we expect them to continue the support,” observed Sibabrata Haldar, a resident of Gosaba village in the southern fringe of the state. Haldar also accepted that the BJP’s promise of doubling the amounts played a role in reversing the support.
BJP won the Gosaba seat without having any organisational strength. As a matter of fact, a large-scale erosion in the TMC support base in South Bengal, the party's bastion until recently, was observed in the last election.
TMC leaders disagreed. “I do not think that people doubted the financial support schemes. As a matter of fact, their success prompted BJP and the Indian National Congress to propose similar schemes in West Bengal even after ridiculing those initially. We feel that a large section of voters, especially female voters who voted in record numbers, supported us in last election due to such schemes,” said senior TMC leader Sovandeb Chatterjee, who has been appointed the leader of the opposition in the new assembly.
Mamata Banerjee’s government introduced more than 90 social welfare schemes — from education and health to rural development and financial aid for women. These led to an annual cost of around Rs 1.8 lakh crore on welfare schemes, which is around 7.5-7.8 per cent of the state's gross domestic product (GDP) and nearly 45 per cent of its projected expenditures in 2026-27 (Rs 3.95 lakh crore).
Out of this expenditure, Rs 42,000 crore was earmarked for Lakshmir Bhandar — a monthly amount of Rs 1,500 for all the females of West Bengal aged between 25 and 60 years barring those working in government sector; Rs 1,700 for scheduled caste and tribal women — while Rs 5,000 crores were earmarked for a financial support scheme for unemployed youth, named Yubasathi, that was introduced just before the election.
In contrast, spending on physical infrastructure had fallen to around 3 per cent of GDP spending, which was around 5.3 per cent in 2019. Economists and experts opined that the state moved towards a debt trap of around Rs 6.9 lakh crore by 2025, which was around Rs 2 lakh crore when Banerjee assumed power in 2011 defeating the left-front government.
“West Bengal can be a case study to show how a state’s finances can go haywire through excessive investment in social sector. While no one deny the need to invest into the social sector, it must keep a balance with investment for long term development by funding into industry, infrastructure and likewise,” opined Buroshiva Dasgupta, a senior business journalist and academic.
“This (dole economy) is all about politics. Sectors like education, health and infrastructure, which need investment for long-term development, received much less funds compared to what they deserved; and hence the supply side will get affected. If this continues, there will be significant shortage of fund soon for even taking forward the populist projects,” opined Ashok Lahiri, economics and politician, who has been recently appointed as the vice chairman of Niti Aayog, the Centre's policy think-tank.
Nilanjan Ghosh, economist and head of think tank Observation Research Foundation, Kolkata, observed that “more money needs to flow into capital expenditure if West Bengal wants to pursue a high growth path that will create an enabling business environment, crowd in investments and create jobs. This can be achieved by reallocating social sector spending, which sometimes results only in a transfer of payments without creating productive services, thereby increasing underemployment in the economy”.
Amit Mitra, former finance minister of West Bengal and one of the architects of the direct cash transfer model, disagreed. “Studies and data show that if you give money directly to the poor, nearly 90 per cent of it is spent, returning to the market and emboldening the local economy, while the affluent tend to underspend much in comparison. Hence, the direct cash transfer, apart from helping those who need most, also help the economy to a large extent,” said Mitra to this correspondent ahead of the assembly election.
The direct cash transfers for women, that have been turned into a successful electoral strategy by several leaders in recent time, got introduced in Goa in 2013. But the large-scale adoption of this model was initiated in Assam during 2020. However, Mamata Banerjee, in 2021, introduced Lakshmir Bhandar and won a difficult election comfortably, leading to the model quickly becoming a template across India.
Overall, nearly 13 states introduced direct cash transfer programmes for women in the last five years.
Ahead of the Bengal election, BJP committed a range of welfare measures, that included Rs 3,000 per month for women under Annapurna Bhandar, Rs 3,000 per month to unemployed people, Rs 3,000 per month for elderly and widowers. Ayusman Bharat, a pan-India health insurance scheme, will be launched in the first cabinet meeting of the new government on May 11, 2026, replacing the previous state government's health insurance scheme Swasthya Sathi.
However, comparisons have already been posed between the new BJP government schemes promised in their manifesto, and erstwhile Mamata Banerjee led government schemes. People have also pointed out how in Delhi, the new BJP government is over a year late in implementing the cash transfer scheme for women that was scheduled for March 2025.
“While Annapurna Bhandar is yet to roll in, the information that we have, shows that the documents like income certificate and bank passbook will be required to apply, over and above the documents required earlier to apply for Lakshmir Bhandar. Apparently, the new scheme will predominantly target the poorer households and only a portion of 22 million women who were enrolled for Lakshmir Bhandar will benefit for it,” said a senior official of a non-profit working in the sector.
“Even Ayushman Bharat, with tougher eligibility and targeted population groups, mainly the poorer section, will have much less beneficiaries compared to Swasthya Sathi insurance scheme, which was near universal. An estimate shows that while the number of families under Swathya Sathi scheme was about 24.2 million families, the potential number of families slated to come under Ayushman Bharat stands around 12.4 million; close to half,” added a health insurance official.
