Rajasthan: 26,000 submissions for Gehlot's video contest, including a BJP supporter

Of the 26,000 total submissions for the 'Jan Samman, Jai Rajasthan' video contest in Rajasthan since its launch on July 7, one submission was made by Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter, Kamlesh Choudhary, reports Newslaundry.

Choudhary, a devout BJP supporter from Jaipur, submitted a video to the daily contest, hyping up a Congress-led state government health-insurance scheme. In the video, he mentions that despite his political inclinations, he is open to appreciating "beneficial schemes."

"I am against freebies. Free this, free that! But the sketch in the video was about the health insurance scheme because I have benefitted from it. Health insurance is important as one bill can make a family bankrupt," he told Newslaundry.

On July 7, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot launched a social media video contest in a run up to the upcoming assembly elections — inviting influencers, content creators and any citizen of the state to create videos about the government’s various schemes, explaining his government's "beneficial" schemes and policies.

All the videos are subject to cash prizes from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 1 lakh. 103 people will be awarded for the best videos every day — the first prize winner will be given Rs.1 lakh, the second prize winner will get Rs. 50,000 and the third prize winner will get Rs. 25,000.

The purpose of this contest is to spread awareness about the top schemes offered by the Government of Rajasthan, Gehlot had said.

The list of awardees has been diverse, including students, a principal of a school for the hearing-impaired, a police officer in the chief minister’s office, a male nurse, and Choudhary.

Two screening committees have selected 33 winners so far for the top three positions, and another 3,330 for the consolation prize. The entries of each day are screened for the positions.

"About 1.80 crore families participated and got the registration done in inflation relief camps and I covered about 10,000 km yatra. I have seen the enthusiasm among people and thus this contest has been started so that the common man can connect," Gehlot had said while announcing the contest.

"The only and only purpose of this contest is to connect the remaining 1.5 million families apart from 180,000 families," he added.