Banking on 'Ladli Behnas', Shivraj Singh Chouhan says BJP headed towards fifth term in Madhya Pradesh

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, November 28

Caretaker Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said the BJP was headed towards a fifth consecutive victory in the state as women had removed all hurdles from its path.

We’ve worked hard

BJP workers laboured hard and Laadli Behnas removed all thorns from the path of the party. We will win. Shivraj Singh Chouhan, MP CM

Chouhan was speaking to BJP workers in his Assembly segment of Budhni, which falls in the Bhopal-Narmadapuram geographical region of the state.

“People are saying Madhya Pradesh is witnessing a close contest, kaantey ki takkar. But there is no such situation. BJP workers laboured hard and Laadli Behnas removed all thorns from the path of the BJP. We will win for the fifth time,” Chouhan said at a party outreach late Monday night, with the BJP convinced that the state government’s last minute Ladli Behna scheme for direct cash transfer into bank accounts of 1.23 crore underprivileged married, divorced and widowed women, would work in its favour. Chouhan has promised to raise the monthly instalment to Rs 3,000 if re-elected and also cover unmarried women aged 21 and above.

Under the scheme, women received a monthly tranche of Rs 1,000 from June until October and Rs 1,250 from October onwards. BJP strategists are hoping for the feel good factor generated by the scheme to convert into votes. Party leaders say the rise in the women voter turnout in MP compared to 2018 would work in BJP’s favour. MP registered a turnout of 77.1 per cent this time, higher than 74.9 per cent in 2018. Women voter turnout rose from 74 per cent in 2018 to 76 per cent in 2023.

In 35 segments out of 230, women voters outnumbered men. Laadli Behna is being touted by political observers in MP as a scheme that put the saffron party back in the fight which the Congress had been dominating for most part of the year until elections arrived.