A few days after polling in Madhya Pradesh, incumbent Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said cryptically in a public address that the record voting in the state has ensured that ‘ladli bhenas’ have removed all thorns in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) path for another term in the state. The bumper results — in which the BJP is poised to win more than 160 seats in the 230-member state Assembly — is being read by political analysts as an endorsement of the flagship scheme. Polling in the state was at an all-time high of 76.22 per cent. Pollsters' data shows that almost 50 per cent of the women voters gave their mandate to the ruling BJP. This is almost 10 percentage points more than the Opposition Congress and six percentage points higher compared to male voters. Experts said schemes likes these are the main reasons why Chouhan managed to beat anti-incumbency for more than 18 years. Launched on March 5, 2023, months ahead of the Karnataka elections, which the ruling BJP lost comprehensively to the Congress, ‘Mukyamantri Ladli Behna Yojana’ promised a handout of Rs 1,000 per month to all eligible women in MP without any counter guarantee. Here is a conversation with the women voters who voted for BJP. How the scheme helped them. A look at their story.