PM Modi also launched the "Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana" on labour day or May Day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday virtually sounded the bugle for its "Mission UP" with a visit to Ballia, home town of former PM Chandrashekhar, in remote eastern UP.
Modi called himself "mazdoor number 1" as he launched the "Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana" on labour day or May Day. The Rs 8000-crore project involves distribution of free LPG connections to a whopping five crore BPL families in next three years. Modi's Sunday visit is seen as crucial as UP elections are due in less than a year, and east UP accounts for the largest chunk of 103 seats in the 403-strong UP Assembly. Of the 36, Lok Sabha seats in this region, the BJP won 35 in 2014, except for Azamgarh, which Mulayam Singh Yadav won.
Modi slammed the successive state governments, pointing out that despite that several former PMs hailed from UP, the state had not seen any growth and had remained plagued by poverty. Modi said, "UP gave several PM but number of poor in UP has only increased...There are faults in policy for poor in UP...Poor have always begged before UP govt...They have broken the confidence of poor in UP."
Modi was at pains to explain that his visit to Ballia was not to sound the poll bugle for UP elections scheduled for next year. He asserted that development of UP was his priority. "Some people are writing that Modi has come to sound the bugle for the UP elections. But they should know that it is the people who sound the bugle. I am here to work for development and for the welfare of the poor," he said.
"Thousands of crores will be spent on this Ujjwala scheme. Earlier governments did not do anything for development of UP and we are putting in more funds than any government has pumped for UP's development," Modi said.
BJP's UP in-charge Om Mathur, who was present on the occasion, expressed confidence of his party repeating the 2014 Lok Sabha charismatic show in 2017 assembly elections as well. "We are sounding the party's poll bugle from here and every big scheme launched by PM Modi is done keeping UP in mind. Such schemes benefit UP the most and we will definitely get political benefit of such big schemes. We will win in UP polls," said a confident Om Mathur.
The PM launched the national scheme on Labour Day in the presence of Governor Ram Naik, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Kalraj Mishra, Manoj Sinha and UP BJP chief Keshav Maurya and BJP MP from Ballia, Bharat Singh.
UP CM Akhilesh Yadav chose to give the event a miss. He, however, sent his Cabinet Minister Ram Gobind Chowdhary to attend the event. PM reaches out to Nishads with e-boats
Accusing the erstwhile Congress governments of pursuing "vote bank politics", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today took potshots at Nehru-Gandhi family and reached out to the numerically significant Nishad community in Uttar Pradesh as he launched solar-powered boats for plying on river Ganga. "You have already seen how many schemes are named after one family. We also felt tempted to name the project after those who belonged to us. But this Modi is made of a different stuff. I named it Naavik (boatman). I did not name it after any of my family members or any leader. I have given a name, which gives immortality to the fishermen community," Modi said.
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