As polling concluded for the Assembly elections in four States and one Union territory, the BJP seems to have moved on to its next big political challenge: The 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has shot off a letter to all members of Parliament from Uttar Pradesh seeking their “help” in implementing the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for allotting free cooking gas connections to women of the Below the Poverty Line (BPL) households.
Writes to MPs in U.P.ADVERTISEMENT
The Minister told The Hindu that he had already written to MPs in Uttar Pradesh, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
“This is a scheme that is important for women still using fossil fuels and suffering from smoke inhalation because they cannot afford cooking gas connections. I have asked MPs, including Soniaji, to help in the implementation of the scheme and identification of beneficiaries,” he said.
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Sources in the BJP said the scheme — launched strategically in Ballia in eastern Uttar Pradesh — is one of the ways in which the party would reach out to Dalits and women, two key segments it wants to woo. The scheme gives priority to SC/ST households in case of shortage of gas connections.
“By involving MPs — and the BJP has 71 MPs plus two from its ally Apna Dal out of 80 MPs from the State — we are also trying to make sure that the Central government, headed by the party, gets to own the scheme,” said a senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh.
Weaker sections benefit“Unlike the Jan Dhan Yojana or Mudra Bank Loan Scheme, this is a very specific, tangible benefit that is being extended to the weaker sections,” he said.
He admitted that party leaders had not been enthusiastic about the Jan Dhan or Mudra, since their benefits were not obvious.