Allahabad: With an eye on next year's Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the BJP's two-day national executive meeting began in Allahabad on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Allahabad for the meet earlier on Sunday, told the BJP workers not to take the opposition lightly and counter their accusations by working for the people.
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According to sources, Prime Minister Modi made this assertion during a meeting with the BJP's national office bearers' held ahead of the two-day national executive meet in Allahabad. He is said to have urged the party workers to ensure that benefits of social schemes reach the people at the earliest.
"I welcome you all from across nation to national executive meeting. The meeting was officially inaugurated by our party chief Amit Shah," Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
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”While addressing the meeting, Amit Shah said that gateway to the north east has been opened for BJP,” added Prasad.
Speaking about corruption, Prasad claimed that while the previous government was steeped in corruption, the two years of the Modi government had not faced any such scandals. Since Modi Govt came to power, India's growth rate has increased from 5.4% to 7.6%, he said.
"We have been successful in making the fiscal deficit go down from 4.4 percent to 3.9 percent, whereas CAD had witnessed downfall from 3.8 percent to 2.8 percent," he added.
Highlighting the expectations, Prasad said that with good monsoon awaited, the growth numbers will trigger a positive bias in the market.
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The Union Minister's assertion comes as the Centre is set to give a major push to the ambitious Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
Asked about the Kairana incident in which 346 Hindu families are alleged to have fled the town, Prasad attacked the Samajwadi Party government in UP. “The state govt is denying the existence of incidents itself, that shows the mindset. It is a serious issue,” he proclaimed.
Prasad said the NDA government has struck a balance between rural and urban development unlike the previous UPA regime.
"We also showed that reform and public welfare can go together. There is no disconnect, the bureaucracy will deliver and implement the decision taken by the political leadership, this never happened before. The previous government was always in dilemma on such issues. Moreover, the simmering disconnect between the defence policies and foreign policies has also been completely resolved," he added.
The Union Minister further said BJP president Amit Shah primarily during the meeting discussed about two things: first the successful completion of two years of government and second the party's performance in the assembly elections of coromandel states.
"Amit Shah in his inaugural address discussed about two decisive incidents. First that under the governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) successfully completed two years at the Centre; second the assembly elections which took place this year where the BJP performed well," said Prasad.
"He expressed concern over prevailing situation in UP, the governance there, the Mathura incident. So, development and governance is lacking in the state. The country cannot progress unless UP develops. We will work so that BJP gets full majority in the state," he told ANI.
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Prasad further said the BJP has spread its wings across the nation from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from
BJP President Amit Shah at the meeting said that the Congress is getting increasingly weakened because of its repeated obstructions in the path of development. He added that many people are now leaving the Congress fold.
He hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving ‘decisive leadership’ to the NDA government in the last two years.
Modi earlier visited the historic Allahabad High Court and spent nearly an hour at the institution currently celebrating 150 years of its establishment.
Modi reached the high court premises at 4 PM and was received by judges led by Acting Chief Justice VK Shukla and members of the Bar Association.
The Prime Minister spent nearly 50 minutes at the court before leaving for Kali Prasad Inter College sports ground, where the national executive meeting is scheduled later in the evening.
