Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday praised Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is under Congress attack over the recruitment scam, for his unmatched credibility.
He said that the only strategy of the Congress now was to attack the credibility of Chouhan in support of their allegations that Chouhan and his kin, including his wife, are involved in the multi-crore state examination board scam.
Jailtley was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day executive meeting of the state Bharatiya Janata Party in Bhopal.
In the beginning, he said that the Madhya Pradesh unit of the BJP had a number of towering leaders that commanded immense moral authority across the country.
He praised former chief minister Sunderlal Patwa and said his word carried weight in the BJP organisation.
The Union finance minister said that a common factor about the chief ministers who had won three elections in a row was that the agriculture growth rate in their states had exceeded 8%.
He said that by ensuring a high agriculture growth rate, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan had ensured contentment at the ground level. This was a bottom up approach.
Once there was prosperity on the farm front, the industries would also want to set up manufacturing units in the state as this would assure them of a good market, Jaitley said, adding that under Chouhan's leadership, the state had freed itself from the BIMARU tag.
{{/usCountry}}Once there was prosperity on the farm front, the industries would also want to set up manufacturing units in the state as this would assure them of a good market, Jaitley said, adding that under Chouhan's leadership, the state had freed itself from the BIMARU tag.
{{/usCountry}}About the existing political situation in the country, he said that dynastic politics and caste-based parties were rejected by the electorate in 2014 and the middle class, which now formed 35% of the population, had voted for Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister.
Jaitley said lack of credibility, policy paralysis and corruption were the three reasons that led to UPA's defeat during the elections.
He said the passage of the land acquisition bill was imperative for rural India’s development as "the 2013 bill passed by the UPA government could not have been more anti-farmer."