BJP, time now for 'Jann ki Baat' as it prepares for challenges ahead

Keeping the government's welfare schemes at the core of its celebrations, the party is putting in place a mechanism to hear 'Jan Ki Baat' (voice of the people). After around 30 episodes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Mann ki Baat' on radio, the party will now seek feedback on government schemes and policies at the Making of Developed India or MODI Fest to be held across the country from May 26 to June 16.

"There will be a special arrangement for Jan ki Baat at every Modi Fest to enable people to send their message to the Prime Minister... Apps of Modi government schemes will be made available for download," said Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, who held a news conference along with BJP general secretary Arun Singh here on Monday to announce plans for three years of Modi government.

With just two years to go before Lok Sabha elections, the party has drawn up travel plans for 450 of its leaders, including union ministers and chief ministers, from May 26, the day the government completes three years. The focus of the BJP's plans is on Opposition-ruled states, particularly those where the party has never been in power. BJP president Amit Shah and chief ministers will be visiting such states.

"The BJP will take government's achievements to every corner of the country... The leaders will hold two events outside their home states," Singh said.

Shah, who is now in Telangana, as part of his mission to strengthen the party in the south, will pay a three-day visit to Kerala in the first week of June. The BJP has just one MP in Telangana and an MLA, the first ever, in Kerala. Later in June, Shah will be visiting Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh, a state in the northeast, where BJP is trying to make inroads wresting power from Congress. He is on a 95-day tour of the country, as part of the party's strategy to target 120 seats, most of which fall in the southern and eastern regions of the country.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be visiting Bihar, ruled by JD-U's Nitish Kumar. In the past three years, when BJP was on a winning spree in states, it had faced humiliating defeats in Bihar, besides Delhi.

Two chief ministers — Raman Singh of Chhattisgarh and Raghubar Das of Jharkhand — will be visiting West Bengal, where Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has been in power since 2011, after defeating CPM-led Left Front which ruled the state for seven consecutive terms. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will be in Kerala, another state where BJP is trying to expand its influence, Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje in Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh, where polls are scheduled later this year, Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Odisha, a state where the party is hoping to increase its footprint in 2019, Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat in J&K and Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal in Agartala.

While Modi will be in Guwhati on May 26 to launch some schemes in the northeast, Union ministers will be in various cities. Rajnath Singh will be in Jaipur and Mumbai, Sushma Swaraj in Delhi and Lucknow, Arun Jaitley in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, Venkaiah Naidu in Bhubaneswar and Chhattisgarh and Nitin Gadkari in Chennai and Ranchi.

The government is trying to rope in beneficiaries of various welfare schemes like Jan Dhan Yojana, Ujjwala Yojna and Mudra Yojana as part of its programme based on its slogan of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'. A 'festival of democracy' will be organised in 900 places across the country.

Irani said 25 crore people have benefited from Jan Dhan Yojana, two crore from the Ujjwala Yojana LPG scheme and seven crore from Mudra scheme. She said of those who benefited under the Mudra Yojana, 70 per cent were women indicating a "silent economic kranti" among them.