BJP to unleash ministers on Congress, Left leaders constituencies

Acting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directions, the BJP has finalized the union ministers to tour parliamentary constituencies of Congress and Left MPs to highlight their "disruptive" practice in parliament.

Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Minister of State for Defence Rao Inderjeet Singh have been deputed to Amethi and Rai Bareli, the bastion of Gandhi family.

The maximum five ministers have been deputed in West Bengal, where the assembly elections are due next year with BJP also sending three of its ministers in Kerala to take on the Left and Congress MPs.

On the last day of a wasted monsoon session that began on July 21, the ruling National Democratic Alliance had decided to hold public rallies in parliamentary constituencies of Congress and Left MPs to highlight their "disruptive" practice.

According to the list, a copy of which is in possession with IANS, BJP's campaign in Amethi and Rai Bareily will be headed by Irani and Singh, and four MPs - Nagendra Singh, Laxmi Narayan Yadav, Priti Pathak and Jyoti Dhruve - have also been deputed for the purpose.

Around two dozen ministers and 98 MPs have been asked to campaign agaist the Congress and Left MPs from August 20 to August 30 and asked to tell the people of the selected constituencies that their representatives have disrupted the monsoon session, due to which important bills like Goods and Service Tax (GST) Bill could not be passed.

In West Bengal, party's campaign will be led by union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Jayant Sinha, Nirmala Sitaraman and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and they will be assisted by 11 MPs. They have been assigned to take on Mausam Noor, Abhijit Mukherjee and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury of the Congress and Mohammad Salim and Badruddoza Khan of the Left.

In Kerala, ruled by the Congress-led United Democratic Front, the party has deputed P. Radhakrishnan, Bandaru Dattatreya and Gen. V.K. Singh (retd.). They will be assisted by 27 MPs including Rajya Sabha member Vijay Goel and Lok Sabha MPs Kirit Somaiya, Poonam Mahajan, Jagdambika Pal and Shobha Karandlaje among others.

For Congress-ruled Karnataka, BJP has deputed union minsters Shripad Yesso Naik, Santosh Gangwar and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and 13 MPs, who will campaign against Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge as well as and senior party leaders M. Veerappa Moily and K.H. Muniyappa among others.

Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Sarbanand Sonowal and Mahesh Sharma have been deputed in Assam where Congress has three MPs including Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's son Gourav Gogoi and Sushmita Dev, daughter of veteral Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev.

Union minister Prakash Javadekar will lead the party's campaign in Madhya Pradesh's Guna constituency, represented by Congress chief whip in Lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindhia. Similarly union minister Piyush Goel has been assigned to campaign against former union minister and senior most Lok Sabha Congress MP Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara.

The Amritsar constituency, represented of Congress deputy leader in Lok Sabha and former Punjab chief minister Capt. Amrinder Singh, has been assigned to union minsters Vijay Sampla and Ram Shankar Katheriya.

No significant business was conducted in the monsoon session, except clearing the supplementary demands for grants relating to the general budget and railways. Key legislation including the GST and land acquisition bill could not be passed due to the disruptions led by Congress.

(Brajendra Nath Singh can be contacted at brajendra.n@ians.in)