BJP prepares to cash in on free ration ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections

Ahead of multiple Assembly polls and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP-led state govts are embarking on publicity campaigns for no-cost foodgrain through PDS

With several state elections lined up over the next few months, followed by the general elections in 2024, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could make the recent announcement of free ration under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) one of its calling cards to woo the electorate.

The free ration programme under the NFSA, which was announced in December 2022, has come into force from January 1 across India, for an initial period of one year.

Given that the general elections would follow months after the expiry of the aforementioned initial period, there is every possibility that the duration of free food distribution will be extended.

In Madhya Pradesh (MP), where the BJP is in power for almost 20 years, barring a brief period from 2018 to 2020, sources said the state government has already embarked on a massive drive for the publicity of the Centre’s free ration programme.

Officials said within days of the central notification, the point-of-sale machines installed at ration shops have been recalibrated, to not charge anything from the beneficiaries. Earlier, the state used to distribute 5 kg of wheat or rice to the NFSA beneficiaries at Rs 1 per kg.

The state government, like many others, did this by further subsidising the already cheap central issue price of Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat, and Rs 1 per kg for coarse cereals.

As the Centre has made the rations free and will bear the expenditure on transportation and distribution of foodgrain, states will save a significant chunk of their annual expenditure on food subsidies.

That’s not all, sources said the MP government has constituted a dedicated team of senior officials that will tour every ration shop across the state to sensitise people and shop owners about the benefits of the scheme and ensure its smooth implementation.

The MP government usually organises Anna Utsav (grain distribution festival) between 7 and 9 of every month, to review grain distribution under the Act. With prices now being made nil, this monthly affair will be in focus, officials said.

District supply officers across the state and also ration shop owners have been sanitised through special meetings and drives to ensure that the message that foodgrain is now free, even if the amount paid earlier was minuscule, is carried forward effectively.

Special banners and posters have been printed and will be put up outside every ration shop and on vehicles carrying foodgrain for the scheme. Even newspaper advertisements are being prepared for the free ration programme.

“WhatsApp groups of beneficiaries and other stakeholders were activated as soon as we received the central notification, to ensure that no one is left behind and there is awareness among those who get subsidised ration from the government,” said a senior official.

In poll-bound Karnataka, a similar exercise is being planned by the ruling BJP. In Uttar Pradesh (UP), too, the dedicated call centres are believed to being activated to handle any issues and concerns of beneficiaries. At the central level, sources said teams of senior officials are being constituted and they will visit states to ensure the efficient implementation of the free foodgrain programme.

Political pundits said in the UP Assembly elections, held last year, one of the key talking points among the electorate, mainly those belonging to the poorer sections of society, was the free ration kits and their distribution. This appeared to have eased the anger due to high inflation and lack of jobs, they opined.

The BJP hopes for the same effect nationally with the central government’s recent decision. In the run-up to the 2022 UP polls, the Yogi Adityanath government, according to official records, distributed over 1.4 mt of rice, 0.95 mt of wheat, 100,000 tonnes of chana (gram), 101.9 million litre of soybean oil, and 100,000 tonnes of salt free between December 2021 and February 2022, as part the Covid relief package.

This free distribution among 146 million beneficiaries across the state cost the exchequer around Rs 300 crore per month, officials had then said.

The ration in a month was given out in two phases for foodgrain and then for other items.

Data showed that in December 2021, maximum distribution was done in Ambedkar Nagar district of UP among 389,000 ration card holders; in January 2022, Mirzapur topped the list with free ration for 440,000 card holders. Ambedkar Nagar again topped the list in February with 390,000 ration card holders benefiting from the same.

Sources said both Ambedkar Nagar and Mirzapur are dominated by people belonging to the less-privileged caste.

That apart, between April 2018 and February 2022, the state added 12.5 million new beneficiaries to the PDS, while the names of around 950,000 people were deleted for various reasons. The distribution was also relatively corruption free.

Akhil Alha, assistant professor at the Council for Social Development, said it is too early to comment on the possible impact of free foodgrain on electoral results because the general elections are still around one and a half years away. But the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections clearly suggested that the expansion of the base of beneficiaries under social protection schemes (Ujjwala, PM-Awas, PM-Kisan, etc) greatly helped the ruling party in consolidating and expanding its vote share.

“While the NFSA was in place even before 2014, the free distribution of foodgrain under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (augmenting the PDS entitlement under the NFSA) helped contain people's resentment about poor handling of the pandemic by the government. Poor households thought that at least the government is providing some kind of safety net through free foodgrain," Alha said.

“In a nutshell, I am saying that it would be too early to comment on the impact of free ration under the NFSA on election results. Still, in the past, such initiatives helped parties retain power in states, like in Odisha where foodgrain was provided free under the PDS," he added.