© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Continuing his visit to major states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Maharashtra on Friday to inaugurate major infrastructure projects, including the country’s longest bridge.
At around 12.15 pm, the Prime Minister will arrive in Nashik to inaugurate the 27th National Youth Festival. January 12 is celebrated as National Youth Day on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. During his visit to the city, Modi is scheduled to hold a roadshow and pray at the well-known Kalaram Temple as well as the Ramkund and Goda Ghat areas.
From there, the PM is scheduled to travel to Mumbai around 3.30 pm to inaugurate and take the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, or the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu, to Navi Mumbai. It is a 21.8 km, six-lane bridge that has been constructed for more than Rs 17,840 crore. It is India’s longest bridge, with about 16.5 km over the sea and 5.5 km on the land. The PM had laid its foundation in December 2016.
According to a government statement, the bridge will provide faster connectivity to Mumbai International Airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport. It will also reduce the travel time from Mumbai to Pune, Goa and south India, and improve connectivity between Mumbai Port and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also known as Nava Sheva Port in Navi Mumbai.
The Prime Minister will then inaugurate and lay the foundation stones of multiple development projects worth more than Rs 12,700 crore at an event in Navi Mumbai, including an underground road tunnel, a regional bulk drinking water project for the people of Thane and Palghar, railway projects worth about Rs 2,000 crore, and a facilitation centre for the gems and jewellery sector at the Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone — Special Economic Zone.
Modi will also launch the Namo Mahila Shashaktikaran Abhiyaan, whose objective is to empower women in Maharashtra by imparting them with skills and exposure to entrepreneurship development.
In context: This month, the PM has already visited Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, attending summits and unveiling and laying foundation stones of development projects. As reported by Liz Mathew, the BJP has scaled up its preparations and could name candidates for 150-160 seats by the end of this month, a week or so after the Ram Mandir inauguration, to “consolidate votes and ensure maximum utilisation of resources”.
“The idea of early declaration of candidates for the Lok Sabha seats seems to have been inspired by the recently concluded Assembly elections. According to a leader, declaring candidates early not only gives the party an edge but also makes the leadership focus on tougher seats,” wrote Liz.
The big-ticket infrastructure projects tend to find a resonance with voters. These projects are part of PM and the BJP’s push to project “Modi guarantees” — promises to voters that Modi says he has kept. The focus on women’s empowerment is also in line with his emphasis on their welfare and an attempt to create blocs of supporters over and above caste demarcations. Apart from women, the poor, youth, and farmers are part of the PM’s “four-caste formula”.
Meanwhile, a day after the TMC dealt a blow to the Congress’s hopes of landing a seat-sharing agreement in West Bengal, the party’s national alliance committee is expected to meet leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP) for the second time. The party will also meet with the Janata Dal (United).
AAP and Congress insiders told Jatin Anand and Mallica Joshi that the talks on Friday would focus on the seat-sharing formula in Delhi. It is expected to be followed by a meeting at a later date to discuss the particulars of the seats preferred by the parties. The Congress, sources said, was expected to make a case for contesting five of the seven parliamentary constituencies in the National Capital, while the AAP is said to be keen on contesting four constituencies — Northeast Delhi, Chandni Chowk, Northwest Delhi, and West Delhi. The AAP is also likely to push for discussions on seat-sharing in states such as Punjab, Haryana, and Goa. But at the meeting earlier this week, the Congress panel had told the AAP’s representatives that its mandate was limited to finalising an agreement for Delhi.
A lot of how the INDIA alliance ends up doing in the Lok Sabha polls will depend on its showing in Uttar Pradesh, which has 80 seats. And in that context, the outcome of the talks with the SP will be crucial. The ties between the two parties hit a rough patch late last year when they failed to reach an agreement on sharing seats for the Madhya Pradesh elections.
The Akhilesh Yadav-led party wants to contest 65 constituencies, up from 37 last time when it was in alliance with the BSP. The SP’s vote share was higher than that of the Congress the last two times. In 2014, the SP secured 22.35% of votes, while the Congress got a 7.53% vote share. The SP polled 18.11% votes in 2014 whereas the Congress just got 6.36% votes.
