New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Gujarat unit has asked its MPs and MLAs to submit a list of development projects that could be approved before the assembly elections later this year.
The state unit is drawing up a list of projects to approve, sources in the party told ThePrint. The BJP wants to highlight these projects before the assembly polls and hopes to get Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate them or lay foundation stones, the sources said.
The idea, a BJP leader said, is to fast-track the proposals and pending projects so at least their foundation stones are laid before the elections.
According to a senior BJP leader, some of the MLAs and MPs had already submitted their lists to the office of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.
Another party functionary said party president J.P. Nadda had laid emphasis on fast-tracking such projects on his recent visit to Gujarat.
“Approvals sometimes take a lot of time and hence a consolidated list is being prepared and it will be fast-tracked,” this BJP leader said. “Some MLAs and MPs have already submitted a list and the idea is to at least start some work on them even if they can’t be completed, but they can be publicised before the elections.”
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‘No early elections’
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been claiming that the Gujarat government could call for early elections, but BJP sources dismissed the claims. Gujarat’s assembly elections are due at end of the year, along with those in Himachal Pradesh.
“The issue was also discussed during a meeting of the PM with senior leaders including Gujarat chief minister,” the functionary quoted above said.
The BJP, which has been in power in Gujarat since 1995, is seeking its sixth term in the state.
The central leadership has also asked the Gujarat unit to come up with deadlines for all of the state’s development and public projects, and speed them up.
“A list of such projects will also be prepared which can be inaugurated by the Prime Minister and other senior leaders before the Model Code of Conduct kicks in,” the leader said. “In some cases it could also be foundation-stone laying.”
One such project is the big-ticket Rajkot Airport, which is likely to be inaugurated in August.
In April, PM Modi had inaugurated a new dairy complex and potato processing plant at Diyodar in Banaskantha district — constructed at a cost of around Rs 600 crore — during his three-day visit to Gujarat. Apart from this, he inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various development projects worth around Rs 22,000 crore in Dahod.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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