5 months ago
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Amid continuing suspense over the selection of the next Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, the BJP’s national general secretary and newly elected MLA Kailash Vijayvargiya on Thursday underplayed the role of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Laadli Behna scheme and said that the party had won the Assembly election only because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
Speaking to media persons in State capital Bhopal, Mr. Vijayvargiya reiterated his recent statement. “Modi-ji’s presence and leadership remained the heaviest [factor]. Was Ladli Behna there in Chhattisgarh or Rajasthan? And the victory in Chhattisgarh is a huge one,” he said.
“Hence, only Modi-ji’s leadership, [Union Home Minister] Amit Shah-ji’s strategy, and [national BJP president] J.P. Nadda-ji’s polling booth and panna pramukh yojana proved successful, and because of these [factors], we got the results in the three States,” Mr. Vijayvargiya added.
Mr. Chouhan has, on the other hand, repeatedly credited the party’s performance to the women of the State, whom he calls his sisters.
Mr. Vijayvargiya, who won from the Indore-1 Assembly constituency, and is one of the contenders for the Chief Minister’s post in the State, also said that the suspense over the selection of the new CM will be over on Sunday, December 10.
The BJP won 163 seats while the Congress only managed 66 seats in the November 17 election to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly.
Under the Ladli Behna Yojana, a flagship scheme of Mr. Chouhan’s government, the State government provides ₹1,250 per month to poor women. The scheme, along with various other women-centric schemes, including the Ladli Lakshmi Yojana, became the most talked about during the campaign, with political observers calling it a gamechanger that helped curb anti-incumbency in the State.
The Ladli Behna Scheme currently benefits more than 1.31 women crore across Madhya Pradesh, which has 2.78 crore female voters at present. The female voter turnout in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly election this time remained at 76.03%, with women voters outnumbering men in 34 seats.
Following the election results, whereas several BJP leaders, including contenders to the top post, are in Delhi to meet the party’s central leaders, Mr. Chouhan has been touring the State to start preparation for the Lok Sabha election scheduled next year.
Mr. Chouhan, who launched the BJP’s ‘Mission 29’ from State Congress chief Kamal Nath’s pocket borough Chhindwara on Wednesday, visited Sheopur district today, where the BJP lost both Assembly seats. On Friday, Mr. Chouhan will visit Raghogarh, home turf of Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, where the latter’s son Jaivardhan Singh won the election by just 4,505 votes.
In Sheopur, Mr. Chouhan said that it was the party’s job to decide who would be the CM. “But I have started working for the ‘mission 29’, and Madhya Pradesh’s public will put a garland of all 29 Lok Sabha seats in Mr. Modi’s neck,” he told media persons.
The BJP is yet to pick its Chief Ministers for Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, States where the party is expected to appoint its central observers soon.
In Madhya Pradesh, for the first time since 2008, the BJP did not project Mr. Chouhan as its face going into the election, giving rise to speculation that the party might be looking at a change of leadership in the State.
