Drawing a parallel between the volunteer system in Andhra Pradesh and a similar set-up put in place by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the BJP has alleged that the “unofficial system” is being used to coerce people into falling in line.
BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, who addressed various meetings here on Wednesday as part of the campaign for the byelection to the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency, accused the volunteers of crossing their limits to work in support of the incumbent government.
“Today, the West Bengal Government is on its way out, and it will be the turn of Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy tomorrow. Anyone making a mockery of democracy cannot continue in power for long,” Mr. Sambit Partra said.
Taxpayers’ money
With each of the volunteers expected to reach out to 50 households, Mr. Patra wondered how could the government afford to pay the volunteers from the taxpayer’s hard-earned money.
Indicating that his party had no objection over the government inviting tenders for construction of churches in the State, he questioned as to what had the government done vis-a-vis development of temples and welfare of priests.
With people overwhelmingly in favour of a change, he maintained that the BJP would prove its supremacy in the elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Assam and Kerala.
‘Will contest polls’
Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narasimha Rao said the green signal given for the conduct of MPTC and ZPTC elections even as the model code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of India was in vogue was clearly an incursion by a constitutional body into the domain of the other.
“The BJP will contest the polls come what may, but will not run away from the arena like the TDP,” he remarked.
