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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Project outreach in poll season
Before the Lok Sabha election schedule came out, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union ministers went on a spree to inaugurate key infrastructure projects and announce new ones across the country. An HT analysis:
According to an analysis by HT, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu among others, inaugurated or announced at least 80 major projects across sectors between February 16 and March 9. The maximum number of announcements were made in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Bihar, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The most prominent among them include infrastructure projects under the Namami Gange scheme, new National Highways, railway lines and metro projects.
Modi launched projects across sectors such as railways, transport, and education before the Model Code of Conduct came into place. The Election Commission announced poll dates on March 10. The code of conduct, which comes into effect once poll dates are announced (April 11 to May 19), prevents the government from announcing new policy decisions, projects or schemes.
To be sure, the overdrive in inaugurating schemes is not unprecedented. Earlier governments, too, reached out to voters through new schemes and projects ahead of elections: in the run-up to the 2014 polls, for instance, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, too, pushed key legislations like the Food Security Bill.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government presented two key schemes in the interim budget on February 1: the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan yojana , a pension scheme for unorganized workers and the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, a minimum income support guarantee to farmers.
On February 16, in Dhule in Maharashtra, Modi unveiled multiple projects including a project to irrigate over 7,585 hectares of 21 villages; launched the Rs 2400-crore Jalgaon-Udhana Doubling and electrification rail project; and flagged off the new Khandesh Express Train, which will ply between Bhusaval and Bandra.
“The NDA government’s vision of development runs on two parallel lines, one being infrastructural development and the other is to uplift those sections of the society who have been struggling to avail basic amenities for over 70 years,” he said at a function on February 17 in Bihar, where he unveiled projects of Rs 33,000 crore.
BJP insiders said the party’s loss in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assembly elections to the Congress in December underlined the challenges it faced before .
Congress spokesman Muhammad Khan said, “Having squandered the mandate of the people in 2014, the BJP and especially Prime Minister Modi tried to do the five years’ work in 10 days.”
Economist Sudipto Mondol said the ruling party always has an advantage before elections are announced. “These announcements were expected and it would possibly have a positive effect. But the level of agrarian distress is so high as revealed in the latest data, and with very little job creation, economic concerns of the common people would be overriding in this election,’’ he said.
A comment from the BJP was unavailable despite attempts to reach them.
