₹10,000 payout tilted Bihar polls, says Sharad Pawar; calls it threat to democracy

Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar has attributed the BJP-JD(U)'s sweep in the Bihar assembly elections to the government's transfer of ₹10,000 to women under the Mahila Rojgar Yojana. Pawar warned that such payouts pose a "danger to democracy," arguing that they risk making a mockery of elections and eroding public faith in the democratic process.

"When voting happened in Bihar, I spoke to some people and the feedback was that a large number of women had voted. I suspected that the ₹10,000 transfer had played a role. All women received ₹10,000 in their accounts, and the result was possibly due to this," Pawar said.

He added that earlier governments would announce such payouts before elections and benefit from them. "In Maharashtra too, the Ladki Bahin scheme helped the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP alliance come to power. If future governments also decide to distribute money in this way, people's faith in elections will be undermined," Pawar cautioned.