Members question absence of implementation of schemes on the ground
New Delhi : After Naresh Gujral’s direct attack on the BJP for ignoring its allies, other alliance partners have also expressed their protest against the Narendra Modi government for handing allies a raw deal. Complaints about no NDA meeting for a whole year are being voiced by the Shiv Sena, TDP and RLSP. To add to the party’s discomfiture, BJP MPs have also started voicing their unrest openly.
A party MP, Bharat Singh from Ballia (UP), on Wednesday openly questioned the total absence of any implementation of schemes on the ground. PM Modi and senior party leaders heard the MP silently while some other MPs expressed their support to Singh.
Supporting Naresh Gujral for raising the concerns of allies, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, “Whatever Gujralji has said is the collective view of all NDA partners. We feel more concerned because the Akali Dal and Shiv Sena are the oldest alliance partners of the BJP. We both stood by them in their worst days but now that they have a majority they have chosen not to consult us or even discuss major policy decisions. We demand that an NDA meet must be convened and this is the collective view of all”, Raut claimed.
A senior TDP leader who is also a minister in the Modi cabinet also agreed that there was need for the NDA to meet on a regular basis but added that the initiative should come from the ‘big brother’.
Meanwhile, the PM got a glimpse of the growing unease among party MPs about the lack of any visible outcome on the ground in the eleven months of the NDA govt. Ballia MP Bharat Singh argued that there was no point holding mass contact programmes about the various schemes and projects of the central govt since people in their constituencies demanded concrete results.
As PM Modi, BJP organizing secretary Ramlal, Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley and other top leaders heard him in silence several party MPs nodded agreement with Singh. The Ballia brought up the issue when Ramlal announced in the weekly parliamentary party meeting about parallel campaigns by the party and the govt after the ongoing session to promote the Jan Kalyan (public welfare) programmes of the Modi government.
smita mishra
