 "BJP's Uttar Pradesh MPs stump PM")
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is grappling with twin problems: Its members not attending Parliament standing committee meetings and its Uttar Pradesh members of Parliament (MPs) being ignorant of government schemes.
At the BJP’s weekly parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu gave a tongue-lashing to party MPs for failing to attend meetings of various parliamentary standing committees. He warned that chronic absenteeism would mean that the party would either not re-nominate these MPs to standing committee meetings or would shift them to non-prominent committees, like youth and sports affairs. The party has identified 12 such MPs.
At a meeting of BJP’s 71 Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh (UP) on Monday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also discovered to his dismay that few of them had any inkling of the government’s objectives to electrify 18,000 villages across the country or provide LPG connections to below-poverty-line families.
This was the third such meeting of party MPs to prepare them for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections in early 2017. The PM is an MP from Uttar Pradesh.
The meeting was held at Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma’s residence. Modi asked the MPs two questions. First, how many of UP’s villages have been provided electricity after May 2014 and how many are left? None of the MPs could answer the question. Second, the PM asked whether any of the MPs were aware of the Modi App and how many had downloaded it.
Again, not one of the MPs raised their hand.
The PM will address two rallies in UP after April 14 — the first on that day in the birthplace of B R Ambedkar, Mhow, and another in Kanpur.
The party is also trying to get Home Minister Rajnath Singh, a former chief minister of UP, more involved in the campaigning. Singh and BJP President Amit Shah will also address six rallies in UP from April 14.
At the BJP’s weekly parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday, the BJP top brass asked MPs to publicise this year’s “pro-poor” and “pro-farmer” Budget during the session recess, from March 17 to April 24. But Naidu’s rebuke to MPs for their absenteeism from standing committee meetings was the highlight.
Naidu said the absence of BJP members in the meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Railways led to that committee coming up with a report that was adverse about the government. He complained that the absenteeism of members meant that there was either nobody from the BJP to put forth the government’s version or contest the criticism from Opposition members.
All BJP MPs whose attendance is less than 50 per cent in the meetings of standing committees will either not be re-nominated to important committees or they will be shifted to committees that are low down on the government’s list of priority ministries.
