Union Minister Nitin Gadkari described the Congress’s promise of a minimum income support for 20% of the poorest of poor as a “gimmick”. He quipped that the Opposition party had probably made the promise, confident that it would not be elected to power and hence called upon to account for the promise.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Gadkari, renominated by the BJP from Nagpur, said the Congress’s record in poverty alleviation did not lead to trust in terms of implementation of such programmes. “You just see from 1947, Prime Minister Nehruji assures the country that poverty will be alleviated, then Indiraji with 20 point programme etc, followed by Rajivji with almost the same things. But as far as economic policies that could address poverty are concerned, the result for Garibi Hatao is zero. There is no credibility with regard to the Congress on this issue,” he said.

“I feel that NYAY is a political gimmick. Where will you get the ₹3,54,000 crore budget for that. That too over and above all the welfare schemes that the NDA government introduced. And by distributing this, where will you get the money to spend on roads, irrigation, schools and other infrastructure...?” he said.