Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a meeting with the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States on Wednesday as the party gets ready for elections to a few big States this year and to the Lok Sabha in 2019. His unambiguous message to the Chief Ministers was to accelerate welfare programmes targeted at the poor and achieve targets of flagship programmes of the Centre.
Party president Amit Shah too spoke at the meeting held for the first time at the BJP’s new national headquarters at Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg.
Speaking to the media after the event, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said the idea of simultaneous polls, something Mr. Modi had been pushing hard for, was discussed.
“It was decided that we need to create public awareness of the benefits of simultaneous polls and the negative impact that frequent polls have on governance,” he said.
The issue is also being considered by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice.
Mr. Singh said presentations on work done by different States were made and discussed especially on cooperation between the Union and the State governments, especially on the Centre’s flagship health protection scheme.
The scheme was announced in the Union Budget to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage up to ₹5 lakh a family every year for secondary- and tertiary-care hospitalisation.
Mr. Shah took stock of preparedness of various States, especially poll-bound Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
