NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday set the tone for upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra as he asked party MPs from the state to strongly counter opposition propaganda against his government.
The Prime Minister asked the BJP MPs to take the schemes and initiatives announced in the Union Budget to the masses and stub out the opposition attempts to spread misinformation about the government, a parliamentary source told news agency PTI.
“The Prime Minister also asked us to outstrip the opposition propaganda against the government and reach out to every voter at the booth level,” a BJP MP who attended the meeting said.
Maharashtra is one of the key strongholds where the BJP did not perform well in Lok Sabha elections which eventually left the saffron party 32 seats short of the majority mark in the Lower House.
The BJP, which performed poorly in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections in the state winning only 9 out of the 28 seats it contested, will have to act fast to recover lost ground and defend its government in the state.
Its alliance partners, Eknath Shinde who heads the Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar, who is the chief of NCP, are also on sticky wickets. While Eknath had revolted against Uddhav Thackeray to split the party, Ajit ousted his uncle Sharad Pawar to take control of the party. However, in the Lok Sabha elections both were trumped by their erstwhile mentors. Shinde won 7 seats against Uddhav’s 9 and NCP chief got only 1 against senior Pawar’s 8 Lok Sabha seats.
The saffron party has faced criticised from RSS for aligning with the junior Pawar, who faced corruption charges and was even targeted by PM Modi in his rallies before the coalition was formed. However, as of now the BJP plans to contest the assembly elections with Shinde and Ajit Pawar.
The opposition on the other hand, knows that it has an opportunity to dislodge the NDA government in the state and will be going all out to win the assembly elections. Sharad Pawar has claimed that opposition MVA will win 225 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly.
(With agency inputs)
The Prime Minister asked the BJP MPs to take the schemes and initiatives announced in the Union Budget to the masses and stub out the opposition attempts to spread misinformation about the government, a parliamentary source told news agency PTI.
“The Prime Minister also asked us to outstrip the opposition propaganda against the government and reach out to every voter at the booth level,” a BJP MP who attended the meeting said.
Maharashtra is one of the key strongholds where the BJP did not perform well in Lok Sabha elections which eventually left the saffron party 32 seats short of the majority mark in the Lower House.
The BJP, which performed poorly in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections in the state winning only 9 out of the 28 seats it contested, will have to act fast to recover lost ground and defend its government in the state.
Its alliance partners, Eknath Shinde who heads the Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar, who is the chief of NCP, are also on sticky wickets. While Eknath had revolted against Uddhav Thackeray to split the party, Ajit ousted his uncle Sharad Pawar to take control of the party. However, in the Lok Sabha elections both were trumped by their erstwhile mentors. Shinde won 7 seats against Uddhav’s 9 and NCP chief got only 1 against senior Pawar’s 8 Lok Sabha seats.
The saffron party has faced criticised from RSS for aligning with the junior Pawar, who faced corruption charges and was even targeted by PM Modi in his rallies before the coalition was formed. However, as of now the BJP plans to contest the assembly elections with Shinde and Ajit Pawar.
The opposition on the other hand, knows that it has an opportunity to dislodge the NDA government in the state and will be going all out to win the assembly elections. Sharad Pawar has claimed that opposition MVA will win 225 of the 288 seats in the Maharashtra assembly.
(With agency inputs)
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