JP Nadda slams Congress govt in Puducherry, says BJP will come to power with over 23 seats

PUDUCHERRY: JP Nadda on Sunday expressed confidence that the Bharatiya Janata Party will come to power in Puducherry with over 23 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Dressed in traditional shirt and dhoti at AFT Maidan in Puducherry, the national president of the BJP hit out and V Narayansamy-led Congress government and blamed him for failing to deliver his promises. While highlighting the performance of the Narendra Modi government on all fronts, he said that a change was necessary for Puducherry. 

Blaming the Congress govt for sending Puducherry into a debt trap, Nadda said that the central grant was reduced to 30 percent from the existing 70% when V Narayansamy was MoS at the Centre. While the Congress government waived off the loans to the tune of Rs 5000 crore for Jharkhand, the same was not done for Puducherry. "This is injustice done to Puducherry," Nadda said. 

The BJP chief further alleged that under the Congress government for the last 35 years, 52 percent of people from the UT are below the poverty line. "The ration shops, textile mills, handloom units have shut down. Close to 76 percent of youngsters are unemployed, students are being deprived of seats in professional colleges and SC and ST tribes are being cleated by the government that could not even conduct the local body polls," he said. 

In his address, Nadda promised that a BJP government will provide the much-needed development and a corruption-free government that will remove all grievances of the people from Puducherry. He assured that they will ensure the salary of employees and provide employment to youths through IT parks and SEZs, provide quality roads, reopen ration shops and textile mills by modernizing them, and provide benefits of all the central schemes like Ayushman Bharat, PMAY and others as well as conduct the local body election. The Centre has provided Rs 1103 crores to JIPMER and another 1000 crores for its Karaikal campus. The phase-II of construction of the JIPMER annex is getting ready, said Nadda.

Even for the outlying region of Karaikal, he promised to expedite the rail connectivity between Puducherry and Karaikal that will reduce the travel distance. "Puducherry will see a sea change in welfare and development," the BJP chief said.

BJP State President V Saminathan, former PWD Minister A Namassivayam were among those who spoke on the occasion in the presence of BJP in-charge of Tamil Nadu  C P Ravi, Puducherry in-charge Nirmal Kumar and other leaders.