PM Modi Speaks For '2 Minutes As Varanasi MP' In Blunt Speech At BJP Meet

New Delhi: For just two minutes, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said to party leaders at a meeting on Monday, he would speak as the BJP lawmaker from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. Then, he bluntly asked his fellow MPs some questions, sources said.

How many of the party's 71 Lok Sabha MPs from UP, of whom he is one, had a list of villages in their constituencies where electricity has reached under his government's Deendayal Jyotigram scheme, PM Modi asked.

Not one person raised a hand.

PM Modi then asked how many had bothered to download on the phones they were carrying, a mobile app launched by the Prime Minister's Office last year, which provides comprehensive information on the government's achievements and initiatives, apart from day to day updates from the PM.
 
Once again, no hands.

The Prime Minister was speaking at a meeting of BJP lawmakers called to discuss preps for elections in UP next year. Among worries discussed was that the Centre's policies are not reaching the common man. There was not much time left for the elections and the focus must shift right away to UP, said both Home Minister Rajnath Singh and party chief Amit Shah, who has said that a robust social media strategy will be the cornerstone of the BJP's Uttar Pradesh campaign.

UP is a must-win election for the BJP, which suffered two big defeats last year in Delhi and Bihar and is not seen among the front runners in at least four of the five states where elections will be held this year. The party hopes to translate its sweep of the state in the national elections of 2014, into a win next year.

The BJP has also effected a strategy shift after the defeat in Bihar, where it reckons that its rivals successfully projected the Modi government as one for corporates and the rich. It presented a Union Budget last month designed to signal that the welfare of farmers, rural poor and the underprivileged is its number one priority.

The PM will be in UP for the launch of a 10-day farmer outreach to be launched by the BJP to highlight the measures announced in the Budget for the welfare of farmers.