WOOING THE WOMEN

With the assembly election in Karnataka due before May this year, women voters in the state suddenly find themselves becoming the prime focus for the two key parties in the state, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

- Ajay Sukumaran

On January 16, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, speaking at the party's Naa Nayaki convention in Bengaluru, promised that under its proposed Gruha Lakshmi scheme, it would give Rs 2,000 to female heads of families if voted to power. The ruling BJP, losing no time either, published-on the same day-front-page newspaper advertisements about its own Grihini Shakti scheme, which would provide financial assistance of a similar amount to housewives from low-income families. The race seems to have only begun.