Rattled BJP eyeing 2019, to see what went wrong
The saffron poll managers failed to gauge the impact of the SP- BSP arrangement, which jolted the BJP in the prestigious Lok Sabha constituencies of Phulpur and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, whose bypoll results were declared Wednesday. The BJP’s poll managers are also rattled by BSP supremo Mayawati’s strategy of transferring her party’s votes to SP candidates. Till now, the SP and BSP were considered archrivals in state politics.
The BJP top brass is expected to review the poll defeats, specially the one in Gorakhpur, that is seen as a rejection of its Hindutva plank as the result was seen as a “semi- final” ahead of next year’s general election. The results have also boosted the Opposition’s efforts to put up a united front against it in 2019. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath accepted defeat and conceded that the last- minute SP- BSP alliance had worked against his party in the bypolls.
The saffron leadership, that was rejoicing over having demolished the Left citadel of Tripura, was in for a rude shock on Wednesday when the BJP candidate lost the key Gorakhpur parliamentary seat. Senior Yogi Cabinet minister Siddharth Nath Singh admitted: “We had not seen the SP and BSP coming together, but
The Centre on Wednesday approved a proposal to extend urea subsidy till 2020 and also implementation of direct benefit transfer ( DBT) for disbursement of fertiliser subsidy.
Urea is made available to farmers at a statutorily controlled price of ` 5,360 per tonne. The difference between the delivered cost of the fertiliser at farm gate and MRP is given as subsidy to manufacturers.
Urea subsidy is projected to be ` 45,000 crore for
the 2018- 19 fiscal, as against ` 42,748 crore for this year.
“The continuation of the urea subsidy scheme will ensure adequate quantity of urea is made available to the farmers at statutory controlled price,” an official release said after the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs ( CCEA).
The urea subsidy has been extended for three years till 2020 at a total estimated cost of ` 1,64,935 crore, it added.
Normally, the Fertiliser Ministry takes approval for the urea subsidy subsidy on an yearly basis, but this time has received clearance for three years.
The CCEA has also approved implementation of direct benefit transfer ( DBT) for disbursement of fertiliser subsidy in order to reduce diversion and plug the leakages.
In the statement, the government said it is in the process to roll out DBT in fertiliser sector nationwide.
DBT would entail 100 per cent payment to fertiliser companies.
Therefore, continuation of the Urea Subsidy Scheme will facilitate the smooth implementation of DBT scheme in fertiliser sector, it added.