BJP CMs meet to prepare 'garib kalyan agenda'

Aim is to discuss ways to bring about uniformity in social welfare schemes being implemented in BJP-ruled states

To project itself as a party that works for the welfare of the poor in the run-up to a series of Assembly polls scheduled from February 2017 to end-2018, some of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers met in Bhopal on Monday to decide on the party’s garib kalyan (welfare of the poor) agenda.

The objective of the meeting was to discuss how to bring uniformity to the social welfare programmes being implemented in the nine BJP-ruled states, and also in those where it runs coalition governments.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who heads the committee on garib kalyan agenda, along with Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das and BJP vice-president Vinay Sahasra-buddhe were present at the meeting held at Chouhan’s official residence.

“Talks of garibi hatao (poverty eradication) and garib kalyan have been going on in this country for many years. The Congress had come up with garibi hatao, but it has remained a mere slogan and nothing has happened,” Chouhan said after the meeting.

“Several states are running various schemes for poverty alleviation and we were given the task of studying them and bringing parity among them so that the development of the poor happens in its real sense,” said the Madhya Pradesh CM.

The committee is looking at the best practices in social welfare schemes from all BJP-ruled states. The BJP is keen to project its pro-poor, pro-farmer, and pro-worker image ahead of elections to key states such as Uttar Pradesh in early 2017, Karnataka in mid-2018 and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan later that year, before preparing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.