Nirmala Sitharaman also said it was the Narendra Modi government that introduced a minimum support price for sugarcane. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)Setting the ground for a tussle with the Pawar family in Maharashtra’s Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said the cooperative sector had been misused for political gains.
“It is the dynasty politics that leads to corruption. We are against dynastic politics,” she said at a BJP office in Baramati, the hometown of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar. “The NCP is a party of corrupt leaders and many have been in jail for corruption…”
She added that BJP workers should not be scared to reach out to the people of the constituency with the message.
In an indirect reference to Pawar, Sitharaman said there were people who held the Union ministry and led the cooperative sector, but failed to introduce reforms that would benefit the poor.
“The cooperative sector has been used for political gain till now. The Congress misused it for its benefit,” she said at a meeting with representatives from the sector.
The BJP has now set up a cooperation ministry and is implementing reforms that will benefit poor farmers and also weed out corruption from the system, the finance minister said.
Sitharaman also said it was the Narendra Modi government that introduced a minimum support price for sugarcane.
The BJP leader told party workers that they also had to focus on removing bogus voters from electoral rolls. “We want to have fair elections. So identify bogus names and get them removed from electoral rolls,” she said.
BJP cadres should take the central government schemes to people and help eligible people avail of their benefits, she added.