SP-Cong, BSP trying to polarise politics: Jaitley

Team Udayavani, Mar 3, 2017, 10:39 AM IST

Varanasi : The SP-Congress coalition and the BSP are trying to polarise politics in Uttar Pradesh at a time when the electioneering has entered the last phase, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here today.

He said the SP and the BSP have fielded candidates with criminal and tainted backgrounds to polarise the polls.

“This kind of politics has been successful only to a certain level… There is also an opposite reaction.. The diminishing returns of such politics will also surely make them (political parties) suffer badly,” the BJP leader said.

“Anger is brewing in the society against such kind of politics,” he said, adding, “a large section is now in a mood to revolt against such politics.”

Jaitley, who was here in the Lok Sabha constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, claimed that the voters in UP are fed up of the “misrule” by the BSP and the SP and their caste-based politics.

Suggesting discrimination, he said the government benefits reach only certain classes which “get jobs on priority”.

“These parties have only tried to divide the people in the society for their personal gains,” Jaitley said.

He claimed that the social base of the BJP had expanded and it was “clearly visible” in the ongoing elections. “The poor and the deprived sections are now standing in support of the BJP,” he said.

He said the slum-dwellers in Mumbai and tribals in Odisha, along with the BJP’s traditional voters, voted for the saffron party in the recent civic polls. The same is being seen in the UP Assembly polls, he added.

“Because of the Modi government s policies, the poor and the deprived sections here too are hopeful of getting social justice if BJP is voted to power,” he said.

Justifying demonetisation, the Finance Minister said its result was that the informal economy has now integrated with the formal economy.

He said the Indian economy was growing at the rate of 7 per cent.

“The entire country is happy about the Modi government s demonetisation decision. It is only the Congress and other opposition parties who are upset over this,” he said.

He said the GST, which will be rolled out from July 1, will give a boost to the economy.