New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick start celebrations on Friday to mark the three year completion of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the centre. Prime Minister is scheduled to speak at a public meeting in Guwahati on the first day of the nearly 20 day celebration planned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and union government.
The choice of Guwahati to start the celebrations is interesting because it coincides with the one year completion of the BJP government in Assam. Both the government and the party wants to use the three year celebrations as an initiative to reach out to the people and inform them about the work done by the union government.
Apart from the public meeting of Modi, BJP leaders have identified 450 party leaders, including parliamentarians from Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers who will take part in the celebrations in their home state as well other states. The party has asked all the 450 leaders to at least attend two events, one in the home state and second outside, in order to cover at least 900 places in the country. BJP leaders also plan to hold press conferences in all the districts.
“Special programmes for youth, women, farmers, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe will be organised in every state and district. The government is committed to serve the financially weaker section and this is an attempt to inform them about the three year achievements of the union government,” said a senior BJP leader involved in planning the events.
According to the plan, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is expected to take part in celebrations in the state and he is also expected to take part in the party’s celebrations in Bihar. Similarly, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is likely to be in Odisha and Karnataka. Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh is expected to travel to West Bengal to take part in the BJP celebrations while Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis will travel to Kerala. Interestingly, all these states are under the rule of opposition parties where BJP wants to play a decisive role in the state politics.
Among the issues that will be highlighted by the BJP and ministers during the 20 day programme are Swachh Bharat, Prime Minister Ujjwala Yojana which provides subsidised LPG cylinders to financially weaker sections, Jan Dhan Yojana and Stand Up India which aims to provide loans to financially weaker sections, especially scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and women entrepreneurs.