BJP slams ruling Congress for deceiving the poor

Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) accused the ruling Congress party of "deceiving the poor people of the country by making false promises."

Addressing a gathering, former BJP chief, Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said that ahead of the polls, the Congress party had assured the poor that they would eradicate poverty within 100 days. "When Sonia Gandhi was going before the people ahead of the polls, she had said that when the Congress comes to power, they will root out poverty within hundred days. The hand of the Congress is busy picking the pockets of the poor and the Congress government has done the work of ruining the poor," he said.

"The people living in shanties were promised houses and the unemployed were promised job, the poor have been again and again roped in by their slogans but if any party in this country has been dishonest with the poor and has betrayed them then it is the Congress party," he added.

He also accused the government of being involved in various scams in the country saying that the government had looted the country of millions.

Gadkari requested the people not to be wooed by money, or cheap tactics of the Congress to attain votes but to think about their own future.

The Planning Commission said in its report on July 23 that the poverty ratio in India has declined to 21.9 percent in 2011-12 from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.

According to the Commission, in 2011-12 the national poverty line, by using the Tendulkar methodology, was estimated at Rs. 816 per capita per month for rural areas and Rs. 1,000 per capita per month for cities.

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This would mean that the persons whose consumption of goods and services exceed Rs 33.33 in cities and Rs 27.20 per capita per day in villages are not poor.

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The opposition parties contested these figures, saying that the government had only released such figure to promote their image prior to the upcoming 2014 elections.