Lakshmir Bhandar To Continue: Why BJP Won't End Mamata's Flagship Scheme In Bengal

Last Updated:May 11, 2026, 14:59 IST

The TMC had repeatedly warned voters, especially women beneficiaries, that the BJP would shut down Lakshmir Bhandar & other direct-benefit schemes if it came to power in the state

West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday moved quickly to neutralise one of the Trinamool Congress (TMC)’s biggest election campaign planks, announcing that the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme and all other ongoing welfare programmes in Bengal would continue under the new BJP government.

Speaking to reporters after his first cabinet meeting—where the government took six key decisions—Adhikari said: “No stop to Lakshmir Bhandar… all ongoing beneficiary schemes in Bengal won’t stop."

The announcement carries major political significance because Lakshmir Bhandar had emerged as one of the central flashpoints of the 2026 West Bengal assembly election campaign.

For the Trinamool Congress and its chief Mamata Banerjee, the scheme was not merely a welfare programme but a political shield around which much of the campaign was built.

The TMC repeatedly warned women voters and beneficiaries that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would scrap Lakshmir Bhandar and other direct-benefit schemes if voted to power. Banerjee raised the issue at every rally, attempting to frame the election as a choice between Bengal’s welfare model and its possible dismantling under a BJP government.

Throughout the campaign, the TMC sought to portray the BJP as “anti-women", arguing that the saffron party neither believed in direct cash-transfer schemes nor understood how deeply programmes like Lakshmir Bhandar had become intertwined with household finances across Bengal.

The BJP repeatedly found itself on the defensive over the issue.

While several BJP leaders assured voters that the scheme would continue—with some even promising enhanced payouts—others triggered controversy by suggesting such welfare programmes could be reviewed or discontinued. The backlash eventually forced the BJP leadership to repeatedly clarify that Lakshmir Bhandar would not be stopped if the party formed the government.

The scheme, which played a key role in helping Banerjee weather anti-incumbency in 2021, currently provides women aged between 25 and 60 from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities up to Rs 1,200 per month, while beneficiaries from other categories receive Rs 1,000 monthly.

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The BJP’s decision to retain Lakshmir Bhandar despite fiercely criticising the TMC’s welfare politics during the campaign has drawn comparisons with how the Narendra Modi-led government handled several flagship UPA-era schemes after coming to power in 2014. The most prominent example was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which the BJP initially attacked as a symbol of Congress-era “failure" before eventually retaining, expanding and politically repackaging it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had famously called MGNREGA a “living monument" of the Congress’s failures in Parliament in 2015, yet the scheme later became one of the Centre’s largest rural welfare programmes, especially during Covid-19.

Political observers believe the BJP may attempt a similar strategy in Bengal—first assuring beneficiaries that Lakshmir Bhandar will continue to avoid public backlash, then auditing or restructuring the scheme, highlighting alleged “leakages" or corruption under the TMC, and eventually attempting to politically rebrand or expand it under the BJP government’s own welfare narrative.

Apart from retaining Lakshmir Bhandar, Adhikari also cleared the way for the Border Security Force (BSF) to acquire land along the Bangladesh border to complete pending fencing work aimed at curbing illegal immigration—an issue the BJP aggressively foregrounded during the campaign.

The BJP had repeatedly accused the TMC government of allowing a porous border that allegedly enabled undocumented migrants from Muslim-majority Bangladesh to enter India and remain undetected in exchange for electoral support.

Another major announcement was the rollout of the Centre’s flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, in Bengal. Adhikari said all central welfare schemes carrying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name would now be implemented in the state, reversing Banerjee’s long-standing resistance to several Union government programmes.

The former chief minister had often declined to adopt centrally sponsored schemes when Bengal already had its own parallel versions, as was the case with Ayushman Bharat.

The BJP’s performance in the 2026 West Bengal assembly election marked its biggest breakthrough in the state’s political history, firmly establishing the saffron party as Bengal’s dominant political force. What began as an aggressive expansion push after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections culminated in the BJP forming its first-ever government in the state, dramatically reshaping Bengal’s political landscape.

At the centre of that rise was Adhikari, who emerged as the BJP’s most influential face in Bengal after defecting from the TMC ahead of the 2021 assembly polls. Over the next few years, he consolidated control over the party’s state machinery, built a formidable organisational network and positioned himself as the BJP’s principal anti-Mamata campaigner.

His aggressive grassroots mobilisation, focus on welfare “leakages" and ability to consolidate support across south Bengal helped transform the BJP from an opposition challenger into a ruling force. His elevation as chief minister after the BJP’s historic victory capped one of the most dramatic political ascents in recent Bengal politics.

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