Welfare plank boosts BJP prospects in MP polls, sets off its worry in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh

The BJP is ramping up its preparations for the upcoming state Assembly elections — especially in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh — as they are crucial for the party’s game plan for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Of the five poll-bound states, Madhya Pradesh is the only one where the party is in power, with Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh being ruled by its arch rival Congress.

While the BJP leadership is hoping that the party would be able to ride on various welfare schemes undertaken by the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government to return to power in MP, it seems to be concerned over the party’s prospects in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on a similar ground — the Congress governments’ welfare initiatives in the two states.

In MP, the BJP has been grappling with the “fatigue factor” since the party has been ruling the state since 2003 barring a hiatus between December 2018 and March 2020, when the Kamal Nath-led Congress was at the helm. The saffron party’s morale in the state has however been boosted in light of the traction that the Chouhan government’s welfare programmes is believed to have got among the people, especially its Ladli Behna scheme.