Humiliated by the stinging loss in the Chitrakoot bypoll, and faced with two fresh bypolls, it seems that senior ministers in the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh have grown desperate. Throwing all norms of political decency to the wind, Yashodhara Raje Scindia, Madhya Pradesh’s Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare, Religious Trusts and Endowment, was reportedly threatening voters while on the campaign trail on February 17, according to an ANI tweet. “Chulhe ki yojana, kyun nahi aayi aapke paas? Bharatiya Janata Party, kamal ki yojana hai. Aap panje mein vote doge, aapke paas aaegi nahi. Aap kamal ko doge, aapke paas aaegi. Seedhi baat hai. Aap agar panje ko vote doge toh hum panje ko kyun denge? Hum panje ke haath se kyun denge aapko chulha? Nahi denge. Aaapko apni samajhdaari se aisi party ko vote dena hai jiski har cheez aapke gharon mein aa jaaye”, she arrogantly said.

Roughly translated, this means “Why didn’t the Ujjawala Yojana scheme come to you? This is a scheme of the BJP, a scheme of the lotus (BJP’s symbol). If you vote for the hand, this scheme won’t come to you. If you vote for the lotus, the scheme will come to you. It’s simple. If you vote for the hand, then why will we give give gas stoves to you through the symbol of the hand. We won’t. You have to, with your own discretion, vote for (our) party so that everything run or launched by this party comes to your house.”