MUMBAI: Though the BJP and the Shiv Sena had managed to forge alliance ahead of assembly polls, both the parties are coming out with separate manifestos and the BJP is likely to counter the Shiv Sena’s health meal at Rs 10 announcement with Rs 5 Atal Ahar scheme, party sources said.
"The party has already initiated the Atal Ahar scheme which is being implemented primarily for construction labourers for past five-six months on trial basis," said a state BJP’s chief spokesperson Madhav Bhandari.
"The Congress-NCP had done nothing in spite of being in power for several years. The government under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, however, gave priority to the health of poor and unorganized labourers. We have done something that the previous governments had miserably failed at. The scheme to make good food available at Rs 5 is being run at all the government projects,” he said.
After the saffron alliance was forged prior the Lok Sabha election, there were deliberations about whether both the parties should come out with a common manifesto. However, the BJP had declined the idea. Now, the party is in a mood to take political mileage by giving superior promises in its manifesto which is likely to be released on Monday.
The BJP had come out with a ‘Vision Document’ ahead of assembly election of 2014 and had been professing that the government had worked according to the road map presented by the vision document.
The Atal Ahar scheme was launched by Devendra Fadnavis in Nagpur on March 7, 2019 on experimental basis. Now, after running it for over six months, the scheme would be brought out on a mega scale, BJP leaders have said criticizing the Shiv Sena for not doing its homework well enough before releasing manifesto.
NCP criticizes Shiv Sena’s "healthy meal at Rs 10" scheme
"Have they been chosen to rule the state or to run kitchens,” Sharad Pawar has said while criticizing Shiv Sena’s “healthy meal at Rs 10” scheme that the party brought out in its 'charter of promises' on Saturday.
“In 1995 Shiv Sena had come out with a scheme to offer ‘Zunka Bhakar’ at Rs 1. Several centres were started all across the state. But what happened to those centres later? The centres soon stopped selling Zunka Bhakar and the place was being used for other business purposes,” Pawar said while criticizing the Shiv Sena’s scheme at a public meeting at Barshi in Solapur district.