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The faction-ridden Haryana Congress has finally gotten around to mount its election campaign on the twin issues of economic slowdown and unemployment.
The party feels that a campaign based on job losses and “recession” will help it in both the industrial and farm belts of the State.
Former State Finance Minister and Chairman of the party’s campaign committee Ajay Singh Yadav told BusinessLine that Haryana is badly affected by the “steep decline” in growth under the BJP governments, both in the State and at the Centre.
He said traditional vocations; big, small and medium industries; agriculture and real estate suffered badly due to the BJP’s economic policies.
“The GDP is not growing beyond five per cent. Economists have predicted that the growth will go down further. It will lead to not just job losses and unemployment, but also inflation and price rise,” said the veteran leader, who has vacated the Rewari seat – represented six times by him — for his son Chiranjeev Rao.
Price rise
Yadav claimed that two lakh people lost jobs in the last few months in the industrial belt of National Capital Region, part of the State. “More people are likely to lose jobs if the condition remains the same. Unemployment and price rise are the two major issues and our campaign is based on this,” Yadav said.
He said the Congress will provide relief to both the industries and the workers. “We will help industries and workers in whatever way we can. We need to simplify the GST and the GST rates are too high. We need to clear the burden on industries put by demonetisation and an ill-planned GST,” he said.
He said many factories in the State’s industrial belts, particularly in the automobile sector, have stopped or staggered production. “Big industries are facing the heat of this slowdown. The government is not standing with them,” he said.
Government schemes
Criticising the BJP, he said though the party launched about 186 schemes and spent a lot of money for advertising them, the programmes remained on paper. “Except Ujjwala, none of the schemes is visible on the ground,” he said.
Yadav had openly criticised the party’s ticket distribution. He was apparently unhappy but was placated by the Congress high command by fielding his son as his successor in Rewari. “Our campaign is in full swing,” Yadav said.
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