BJP Banks On Health Scheme, A Modi Guarantee, To Boost Voting

With the first two phases of Lok Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh ending in low polling, BJP on Sunday launched a drive to enrol the prospective beneficiaries of the new health scheme, pledged in its ‘Sankalp Patra’, to boost voting in the ‘crucial’ final two rounds of polling in the state, scheduled to be held on May seven and May 13.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav launched the campaign to generate awareness among the people on the proposed ‘Ayushman Bharat Vistar Yojana (extended scheme), envisaging free medical treatment up to Rs five lakh to the people aged above 70 years, by filling up forms for the four senior citizens in a colony here.

“The new health scheme for the elderly people is one of Modi's guarantees to be fulfilled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gets a third term as PM in the general elections. It is a historic decision by Mr Modi to provide health benefits to the people aged above 70 years”, Mr Yadav said while filling up the forms of the four prospective beneficiaries of the scheme in Shastri Nagar colony here.

He said that people aged above 70 years across the state would be enrolled in the proposed scheme in the coming days.

“BJP always worked for the uplift of the poor. Prime Minister Mr Modi has launched various welfare schemes to provide house, cooking gas, piped water and free treatment up to Rs five lakh to the poor”, he said and appealed to the voters to vote in large numbers in the final two phases of LS elections in the state.

BJP’s co election in-charge for LS polls for Madhya Pradesh Satish Upadhyay was present on the occasion.

State BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma simultaneously launched the drive to enrol the prospective beneficiaries of the proposed health scheme in another colony here.

BJP’s move to launch a campaign to enrol the prospective beneficiaries of the new health scheme, promised in the poll manifesto of the party, comes in the wake of the dip in polling in the first two phases of elections in the state, held on April 19 and April 26.

While there was a drop in polling by 7.32 percent over the last polls in the first phase of elections when six LS constituencies went to the polls, the second phase polling witnessed a fall of voting by 9.05 percent.

Six LS seats went to polls in the second phase.

In the final two phases of elections, eight and nine LS constituencies are scheduled to go to polls respectively.

In a related development, state minister Prallhad Patel on Sunday attributed the dip in the polling in the first two phases to the ‘disillusioned Congress voters’ to vote due to the ‘no show’ by the grand old party in the polls.

The Congress however said that the low polling reflected people’s anger towards BJP.