Today in Politics: Modi focus on infra stimulus in poll-bound states, TMC protest set to begin in Delhi

The PM is set to visit the poll-bound states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to unveil and launch multiple development projects worth Rs 7,000 crore and Rs 19,260 crore, respectively.

Modi’s programme in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan, begins at around 10.45 am. There, he will inaugurate the Rs 4,500-crore Mehsana-Bathinda-Gurdaspur gas pipeline. The PM, will then will inaugurate the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited’s LPG plant in Abu Road, open a new four-lane road on the National Highway 12 in the Darah-Jhalawar-Teendhar section, constructed for Rs 1,480 crore, and inaugurate several railway projects, tourism facilities and a permanent campus of the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Kota.

The Rajasthan visit follows the BJP’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in Delhi on Sunday night chaired by the PM. The CEC met to finalise the party’s list of candidates for the Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh Assembly polls, with several leaders from the states in attendance. The party has yet to announce its first list of candidates for Rajasthan. Its CM face remains unclear, with former CM Vasundhara Raje being kept at an arm’s length from several party programmes. Raje, however, was at the CEC meeting. The CEC meeting comes days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda met the party’s core group in Rajasthan to discuss ticket allotment in the faction-ridden state unit.

Modi will arrive in Gwalior around 3.30 pm to inaugurate various projects, including the Rs 11,895-crore Delhi-Vadodara Expressway, and lay the foundation stones for five other road projects worth over Rs 1,880 crore. He will initiate the housewarming ceremony for 2.2 lakh rural homes built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and dedicate houses constructed under PMAY Urban for around Rs 140 crore. Modi also will lay the foundation stone for Jal Jeevan Mission projects worth over Rs 1,530 crore in Gwalior and Sheopur districts, nine health centres under the Ayushman Bharat Infrastructure Mission, and 50 critical care units in nine cities across the state.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be in Amritsar on a personal visit amid a strain in ties with INDIA ally Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira’s arrest in a narcotics case. Gandhi is expected to arrive at the Golden Temple around 10 am. He has reportedly expressed a desire to engage in service at the Golden Temple and may assist in the kitchen or participate in langar service. He has no political events on his schedule.

In Chhattisgarh, the Congress will organise day-long marches in each of the 90 Assembly constituencies to promote CM Bhupesh Baghel’s welfare schemes. Cabinet ministers, MPs, and MLAs will attend the events in their constituencies. Each of these “Bharosa Yatras (Trust Marches)” will cover 25-30 km and include public meetings. In Mumbai, the INDIA bloc will mark Gandhi Jayanti with a “Main Bhi Gandhi (I am also Gandhi)” march to protest against the BJP’s “divisive politics”. It will start at 2 pm at Metro Cinema.

Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) will go ahead with its protest against the Centre over the lack of funds for the MGNREGS rural job guarantee scheme. The party’s MPs and state ministers plan to hold a sit-in at Raj Ghat around 1 pm. The party’s student and youth leaders are then likely to march towards Parliament with MGNREGS cardholders to make the point that while the Modi government had the money to build a new Parliament building it is withholding money owed to the state. Senior party leaders are then expected to hold a meeting to decide their plan for October 3 and address the media.

Two big events are scheduled to be held in Haryana, one led by former Union Minister Birender Singh of the BJP in Jind and another by the Congress’s former state Cabinet minister Captain Ajay Singh Yadav. Singh’s rally is being held under the banner of the “Birender Singh ke Saathi (Friends of Birender Singh)” and will not use any BJP flags or banners. Singh’s aides say he is attempting to form “new social combinations” in Haryana and emerge as a “leader of the masses”.

Yadav will lead a march from the party office in Chandigarh to the Haryana Raj Bhavan to demand that women from Other Backward Classes (OBC) be included in the reservation system of panchayati raj institutions.

In Andhra Pradesh, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu will lead a statewide hunger strike against his arrest from the prison in Rajamahendravaram where he has been lodged for the last three weeks.

Watch out for: Road to 2024, our weekly tracker on the BJP and the Opposition where we decode how the battle for the Lok Sabha is shaping up.

— With PTI inputs