Delhi, Bihar Assembly elections in 2025 to test the fate of freebies

This year will have the fewest elections of any in the current five-year electoral cycle. What does that mean for welfare schemes?

A feature of the flurry of elections in 2024, which included Lok Sabha elections and eight Assembly polls, was the slew of welfare schemes, including cash transfers for women that political parties of all ideological and spatial hues proposed. With only two Assembly polls, namely, to elect governments in Delhi and Bihar, 2025 will have the least number of elections for any year of the current five-year electoral cycle.

 

There are already indications that the pause has given at least some state governments much needed room for manoeuvre to cut down on some of the subsidies, such as free power.