BJP looks to counter AAP’s subsidies with direct benefit transfer plans in Delhi poll
The BJP will likely counter the ruling Aam Aadmi Party’s subsidised services, including electricity, water, and bus rides for women, by announcing direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes in its campaign for the upcoming Assembly election, said a senior party leader.
Moreover, the party is unlikely to announce its Chief Ministerial candidate for the poll, the BJP leader added.
The Delhi unit leaders of the BJP, which last held the reins of the Capital in 1998, have been pushing the national leadership to reconsider its position on the issue of offering subsidies.
The party had hardened its stand against providing “freebies” when, two years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an apparent attack against AAP, said taxpayers get sad when they see free “revdi” being distributed with the money collected from taxes.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has since raised the issue of “freebies” several times, connecting the rising inflation with the need for subsidised services. Last month, the AAP chief had said that he is a halwai [confectioner] who prepares revdis for people’s welfare.
The senior BJP leader said the party has never been against subsidies and has optimised financial assistance schemes in several States, boosting development and growth.
“In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Haryana, we introduced DBT schemes in our election campaigns, and on assuming power, put the money we had promised into people’s bank accounts directly,” said the leader familiar with the party’s election strategy for Delhi.
When asked to respond to the claim made by AAP leaders in their poll drives — that the BJP will halt all subsidies on coming to power in Delhi — the leader said, “These are false narratives. We faced similar issues in other States such as Rajasthan and Odisha, but we formed the government there without any trouble.”
Without divulging much about the nature of the DBT schemes the party is likely to announce, the leader said the programmes would be aimed at “providing support to those from economically weaker backgrounds, which includes women”.
While the BJP has swept all Lok Sabha seats in Delhi in the last three elections, it has failed to cross the double-digit mark in the 70-member Assembly since AAP came to power on its own in the 2015 election by winning 67 seats.
Various factions in the party have been urging the national leadership to announce a CM face even though the last time the BJP projected a face in the Delhi Assembly poll — former IPS officer Kiran Bedi in 2015 — the party gained little in terms of public support.
The senior party leader said, “There have been demands about this [projecting a CM face]. However, it is unlikely given that we did not do this in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh or any other State that we have won recently, and it worked for us.”
Published - November 04, 2024 01:03 am IST
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