Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan kicked off preparations for the 2023 assembly election on Saturday, with a chintan shivir (contemplation camp) of the state cabinet at Pachmarhi to take stock of the implementation of government schemes. Presentations will be made by 13 groups of ministers over two days to prepare the action plan for the assembly election.

Chouhan’s focus on beneficiaries (hitgrahi) in the state comes after the party’s success in Uttar Pradesh in the recent election. The BJP believes the beneficiaries of government schemes voted for the party in large numbers in UP.

Several schemes launched by the MP government were stopped during the Covid-19. On the first day of the chintan shivir, the government decided to restart CM Pilgrimage Scheme for senior citizens. The scheme will resume from April and this time the CM and other ministers will accompany the pilgrims.

Another such scheme was the Chief Minister Girls Marriage Scheme, under which the government prepared a marriage calendar of the year and MLAs and other public representatives would be involved in the marriage ceremony.