BSP, BJP luring voters with promises of land, rice

BSP has taken a lead and declared that 'three acres' of Govt land would be given to landless and BPL families, if the party is voted to power.

Even as the two main political parties in the state-BSP and BJP-are yet to declare their election manifesto for this year’s election, BSP, which is contesting all the 90 Assembly seats, has taken a lead and declared that ‘three acres’ of government land would be given to landless and below poverty line (BPL) families, if the party is voted to power.

“It is three acres of land to poor vis-a-vis BJP’s Rupees three a kg rice in this election,” a senior BSP office-bearer said.

Dauram Ratnakar, BSP Chhattisgarh unit president, said that though price rise, terrorism, and under development are some of the other poll planks, the party is prominently focusing on the poll promise of ‘three acres’ land.

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“The experiment was successfull in Uttar Pradesh and we are hoping for equal response here in Chhattisgarh also,” he said.

To reach out voters with this ‘three acre land’ poll promise, four Uttar Pradesh ministers are camping in Chhattisgarh and extensively engaged in electioneering. The Ministers include Finance Minister Lalji Varma, Health Minister Anant Kumar Mishra, Fisheries Minister D R Nishad and Minister of State for Education Rajesh Tripathy.

BSP is also replicating its ‘social engineering’ concept- on the basis of which the party formed its government in UP.

Out of the 90 seats, the party has given 14 tickets to upper caste people. “We have been getting good support from the upper caste people and thus fielded 14 upper caste candidates,” Ratnakar said.

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The party taking a head start in electioneering in the state by declaring its candidates much earlier and starting campaigning two months ahead of the election, is hoping to increase its voting share substantially and to form the government.