State ‘charged’ with negligence

One day into battle, and the BJP has already set the pace. A day after the Election Commission announced an October 13 polling date for Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday issued a “chargesheet” against the ruling Democratic Front government.

One day into battle, and the BJP has already set the pace.

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A day after the Election Commission announced an October 13 polling date for Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday issued a “chargesheet” against the ruling Democratic Front government.

The charges: Neglecting farmers in favour of wealthy industrialists, failing to stem the rate of farmer suicides, pushing to state to a whopping debt of Rs 1.85 lakh crore and causing it to slip from the top spot on the national development index.

Mounting a scathing attack on the decade-old Congress-NCP-led government, the symbolic chargesheet lists several other instances of ‘failure of governance’ and promises the electorate that the party will work hard to undo the damage if voted to power.

The ‘chargesheet’ goes on to list all the promises made by the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party in their last election manifesto, and the lack of action in the years that followed.

“The decade-old rule of the DF government has been corrupt and completely useless,” said state party general secretary Gopinath Munde. “You have the CM and deputy CM squabbling over which company should be awarded a tender, but you never see them fighting each other over things that would benefit the populace.”

The embattled BJP — itself still fighting the effects of an explosive book by now-expelled leader Jaswant Singh — is contesting the state election with the Shiv Sena.