Analysis | Balagopal employs superstar wisdom to acquire mass appeal before polls

Whenever superstars placed their stories around the life of autorickshaw drivers, the films turned out to be mass events. Whether Rajinikant or Mohanlal, the big stars seemed to exude a special charm in their auto driver avatar.

'Baasha', Rajini's biggest ever hit, has 'Naan aattokkaran...' as the superstar's intro song. In 'Hey Auto', Mohanlal likens his auto to a gorgeous female, and people thronged the theatres like they were festival venues.

If auto drivers can help stars bring in the masses, why not place them in a lead role in a poll-eve Budget in Kerala. "Autorickshaw workers are the backbone of our transport system," Kerala’s finance minister K N Balagopal said in his Budget speech, the first time he has said so in the past five years.

He set apart ₹20 crore for a 2 per cent interest subsidy and a one-time scrappage bonus of ₹40,000 for those wanting to scrap their petrol/diesel autos for electric ones. Better still is the ₹20 crore allocated for the creation of 5000-odd  driver-friendly smart micro hubs.

Not just auto drivers, Balagopal has also attempted to please a group of unorganised workers thrown up by the IT age: gig workers. He promised ₹20 crore for the creation of 'gig hubs' or modern resting places for Zomato/Amazon delivery boys and girls across Kerala.

Clearly, Balagopal was attempting to ensnare workers in the highly unstable low-paid unorganised sector but with close links to the middle class. Instead of poll-eve 'screaming headline' announcements, Balagopal has resorted to a meticulous 'job group'-centric approach. Besides auto drivers and gig workers, the finance minister has sought to appease Asha workers, a job group the Pinarayi Vijayan government had consistently snubbed in the past two years.

However, in November, before the local body polls, their honorarium was increased by ₹1000. Now, through this pre-election Budget, Asha workers have been given a second ₹1000 hike. Anganwadi workers, pre-primary teachers, noon meal workers in schools and saksharatha preraks were also beneficiaries of his poll-eve magnanimity.

The importance of auto workers, gig workers and scheme workers like Asha workers springs from the need-based services they provide. Moreover, these are also popular self-employment options available for women and youth mostly from lower income families. Small reliefs to large groups of lower middle-class voters, therefore, replaced big-ticket declarations in Balagopal's last Budget.

Fact is, all his big-bang announcements like the increase in social security pensions and the ₹1000 Sthree Suraksha pension for nearly 32 lakh women were unveiled last November by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Now, there was nothing major left for Balagopal to say.

Kerala's finances are so strained that the finance minister could not even honour the promise in the LDF manifesto that monthly welfare pensions would be upped to ₹2500.

Balagopal did of course make some jackpot-like proclamations. But these were risk-free ones that did not involve any immediate spending by the LDF government. The constitution of the 12th Pay Revision Commission, for instance. Or the promise of Assured Pension.

There was an immediate need to placate government employees and teachers. The LDF government, in an affidavit in the High Court, had reasoned that DA (dearness allowance) could not be considered as a right of an employee and that it is not a compulsory statutory benefit. This official claim was so provocative that even LDF emoloyees' organisations were up in arms. Balagopal's promise to pay the DA arrears in full was the apology.

There was another announcement that could bring the traffic to a standstill. Free graduate education for those in government and aided arts and science colleges. The policy without a doubt is intended as a gift to the middle classes that seemed to have deserted the LDF in the 2025 local body polls.

This was election-eve generosity demonstrated without a thought. When asked, Balagopal said he had no idea how much the government would have to forfeit in revenue as a result of this free measure. The measure was also announced at a time when the higher education system is in dire need of funds.

Perhaps the most definitive proof that the Budget was meant to charm the voter lies in an absence. Towards the fag end of a Budget speech, finance ministers as a rule reveal the 'additional resource mobilisation' (ARM) in the Budget. The ARM is the extra burden imposed in the Budget on tax payers in the form of fees, duties, levies and taxes.

Last time, even though the state was heading into an election year, the ARM was nearly ₹400 crore. The fiscal before, 2024-25, it was over ₹1000 crore. This time the ARM figure was absent. Simply put, the burden imposed on citizens in this poll-eve Budget is zero.