Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his advisors may be banking on the NYAY scheme as a potential game-changer in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in Odisha.

But as the campaign in first of the four phases of polls rings down in the eastern state on Tuesday, there seems to be little or no information about the minimum income guarantee scheme in some of its poorest regions.

Rahul Gandhi recently announced the NYAY or Nyuntam Aay Yojana scheme that guarantees Rs 72,000 per annum for the poor. The Congress has promised to provide cash support to the poorest 20% households of the country if it is voted to power in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The opposition party promised to target five crore families or 25 crore individuals as beneficiaries of NYAY, which Rahul Gandhi has called a “revolutionary” scheme that “will change the face of India”.

The four Lok Sabha seats of Koraput, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi and Berhampur consisting of 28 assembly constituencies, possibly one of the poorest regions of Odisha, will go to polls on April 11. Of the estimated 5.6 million eligible voters who are expected to cast their vote in these constituencies, more than 50% are estimated to be living below the poverty line. A significant portion of them would possibly have been a beneficiary of the scheme, supposed to be Rahul Gandhi’s pet project.

However, on the ground, there is nothing to suggest that NYAY scheme has managed to create a buzz. With no poster of Congress in the districts talking about the scheme visible in Kalahandi, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Malkangiri, many old Congress voters seemed to be unaware of the scheme.

In Dangaragad village under Bhawanipatna assembly constituency of Kalahandi, Sira Sabar said she does not know the scheme.

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The 64-year-old woman lives in a dilapidated tiled house and her husband owns less than an acre of land. All that she knows is the KALIA or Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation scheme, the Rs 10,000 a year cash-transfer scheme by the BJD government for farmers, of which she is a beneficiary.

“I have received Rs 5,000 under KALIA scheme, Apart from that I have no idea about any other scheme,” she said.

In tribal-dominated Nabarangpur and Koraput districts too, many said they have not heard about the scheme.

For the Congress, which has been on the wane after its listless performance in the 2017 panchayat polls in Odisha, it would have been a challenger to ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had the NYAY scheme been publicised well.

In the 2014 assembly polls, the Congress had won six out of the 28 assembly constituencies and finished as runners-up in 18 seats. With the BJP emerging as a principal challenger to the BJD, Congress candidates were hopeful of turning the tide with NYAY scheme.

Though Gandhi in a public meeting in Kalahandi in February this year had indicated about NYAY benefitting the poor in Odisha, he has so far failed to make a single trip to the state after elections schedule was declared. On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and even BSP chief Mayawati have visited the state and all of them have ridiculed the NYAY scheme.

Ch Santakar, a political analyst in Koraput, said none of the Congress candidates in Koraput are talking about NYAY scheme in their election meetings.

“They are rather heaping abuses on BJD government in Odisha and BJP government in Delhi. Perhaps they know it’s futile to talk about a scheme whose details are not yet clear,” said Santakar.

A senior Congress candidate in one of the districts that is going to the polls in the first phase said the party bungled in not advertising about the scheme that was tailor-made for the region.

“We managed to publicise the paddy MSP of Rs 2,600 per quintal thing well, but on NYAY we have been a failure. I told the PCC leadership to give us publicity materials, but no one responded. The PCC chief was more focussed on social media sites like Twitter which very few in my constituency care about,” the candidate, who did not want to be named, said.

The Congress’ failure to capitalise on NYAY seems to have coincided with a sudden implosion in its rank and file. Till Monday, the party was busy firefighting as two of its candidates for the assembly election refused to contest citing the delay in the announcement of their candidature.

Sitakanta Mohapatra, 76, said he was not interested in contesting from Barachana assembly seat from Congress as his name was announced just two days before the closing of nominations. In Dharmashala assembly constituency, Kishan Panda had not received a ticket for filing nomination papers with nominations about to end in an hour.

Earlier, three other MLA candidates including Congress veteran Yudhisthir Samantray opted out of the race citing delay in announcement of his name.

On Monday, the president of the party’s women’s wing, Sumitra Jena resigned from the Congress alleging that the state unit chief Niranjan Patnaik was ruining the party’s chances by cutting a deal with the ruling BJD.

“Niranjan Babu is playing the role of Shakuni in Congress. But the way he and his son have distributed tickets, I doubt if the party can win even five assembly seats. The mining mafia is now ruling the party,” she alleged.

Polling in Odisha will take place during the first four rounds of the seven-phased Lok Sabha election scheduled on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The votes will be counted on May 23.

Also read | PM Modi gave idea for Nyay: Rahul Gandhi

First Published: Apr 09, 2019 17:10 IST