BJP’s Preparation for 2019 Polls: PMO Seeks List of All Projects Modi Can Inaugurate Till December 2018

Eyeing the 2019 Parliament election, the BJP regime has started to explore more possible ways to project their “development model”. Latest in the row, Prime Minister’s Office has asked all the ministeries to furnish the state-wise details of the projects that Modi gets to lay foundation stones of, and inaugurate before December 2018, the Economic Times reported.

As per the report, the ministries were asked to give the detailed accounts of the projects including their funding pattern, the amount of money be allocated by the Center and the respective state governments, and whether all the clearances for the project are in order. Among the projects, the infrastructure ministries–housing and urban affairs, road transport and highways, railways and civil aviation–were given a higher priority.

A pro forma that is being circulated among the ministries seek detailed accounts of projects, and whether Modi could lay the foundation stones, inaugurate or dedicate those “to the nation”. Of course, the primary focus is on the projects that Modi can lay the foundation stone for, with a clear directive stating “it may be ensured that all clearances are available in respect of the projects intimated.”

The BJP regime, seeking new ways to bag votes in the 2019 parliament election, has already initiated such exercise in three BJP-ruled poll-bound states–Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. A similar strategy had been implemented in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh to counter the general perception that the state government has not been implementing many projects after one year of the Yogi Aditya Nath government in power.

Modi, in UP, to tackle the people who are unhappy with Yogi government, inaugurated five projects within 20 days. The drive started with him inaugurating the world’s largest mobile phone plant in Noida on July 9. Again, on July 14, Modi dedicated the 340-km Poorvanchal expressway from Azamgarh, the turf of Samajwadi Patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Apart from this, few more inauguration projects are in the pipeline. On July 15, Modi is all set to lay the foundation stone for development projects in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi. Following the Varanasi chapter, Modi would address farmers in Shahjahanpur on July 21. The move comes at a time when strong struggles from the farmers across the country have put the Center on a back foot.

The farmers across the country, continuing their struggles, would observe Jail Bharo Andolan on August 9 - the anniversary of historic Quit India movement. On the same day, All India Kisan Sabha’s campaign of collecting signatures of 10 crore farmers would culminate at every district headquarters across the country. While handing over the demand chart with their signs to district magistrates, the farmers will ask the anti-farmer BJP government to quit India: BJP Bharat Chhodo.

However, BJP has plans for more farmers’ rallies all over the country, apart from the one at Shahjahanpur. BJP has already conducted a rally at Muktsar in Punjab, on July 11. The Shahjahanpur rally would be followed by a rally each in Odisha and Karnataka.

On July 29, Modi is scheduled to take part in a ceremony in Lucknow in relation to the projects that the state government had signed memorandum of undertaking with companies during the investors' summit in February this year.

Before starting with this series of inaugurations, on June 28, Modi had inaugurated Kabir academy at Sant Kabir Nagar in Maghar, which comes under Gorakhpur region.

Coming back to the national scenario, very recently, on July 12, Modi inaugurated the headquarters of the Archaeological Survey of India in New Delhi.

The inauguration drives eyeing at elections are not new for the BJP regime. Before the Kairana by-polls in UP, in May, PM Modi demonstrated a massive road show to dedicate the Delhi-Meerut expressway to the public on the election day. However, 90 percent of the project was not operational at the time of inauguration. The political drama was there before the Gujarat election too. Before the Gujarat polls, PM had laid foundation stones for a host of projects worth more than 1,600 crores, in a single day.