Free Electricity Is Quickly Becoming A Successful Electoral Strategy

Free electricity is becoming a winning formula for elections, as per the IANS-CVoter Live Tracker.

Ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections in different states, while AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has announced to give free electricity in Uttarakhand, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has promised free electricity in Uttar Pradesh.

As many as 50.29 percent of respondents in the survey said the promise of free electricity is becoming a winning formula for elections while 35.28 percent said no, a party can't win elections just by the promise of free electricity. Also, 50.92 percent said providing free electricity affects the revenue of the states, which affects other essential services that are provided to the public.

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The sample size of the survey is 1,225. CVoter NewsTracker Surveys in India are based on a national representative random probability sample as used in the globally standardized RDD CATI methodology, covering all geographic and demographic segments across all states. This daily live tracker survey is based on interviews of adult (18+) respondents across all socio-economic segments. The data is weighted to the known census profile. The standard margin of error: +/- 3 percent at national trends and +/- 5 percent at regional/zonal trends with a 95 percent confidence level.

Arvind Kejriwal has announced to give free electricity in Uttarakhand.Wikimedia Commons

Kejriwal in a visit to Dehradun, the capital of Uttarakhand on Sunday, made three promises – free electricity up to 300 units for every household, old electricity bills will be waived off completely, free electricity for agriculture purposes, and the fourth and the last – zero power cut in Uttarakhand, if his party (AAP) forms the government in the state.

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AAP's announcement came around a week after the state's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to provide free electricity up to 100 units per day and for above the people have to pay only 50 percent of their total electricity.

Having an experimented formula to provide subsidized power for the last six years in Delhi, Kejriwal explained how 300 units of electricity can be given for free to the people of Uttarakhand.

Replying to queries of reporters in Dehradun, the AAP head said: "We have not made this announcement just out of the air, we have made a calculated estimate for this. Uttarakhand's annual budget is around Rs 50,000 crore, of which only Rs 1,200 crore will be the cost for subsided electricity." (IANS/KB)