Union Budget 2018: BJP focus on rural voters

New Delhi: With seven state elections slated to be held this year, and growing indications of voters’ disenchantment with the BJP, especially in rural India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s last full-fledged Budget is designed with eyes firmly on the restless underprivileged and angry farmers.

Stepping up on the agenda of “empowering the poor”, finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday unfurled, with aplomb, one of the biggest ever health care schemes that will cover, he said, nearly 50 crore underprivileged people. 

The government believes that its anti-rich and pro-poor demonetisation policy helped it record an unprecedented victory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. It was being predicted that the UP polls verdict would drive the government to loosen its purse strings in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. “That’s what is happening,” a senior BJP leader said.

While the urban India remains tilted towards Modi-led BJP, it’s the rural belt that is rapidly shifting towards the Congress. 

This lesson was driven home by rural Gujarat. While urban Gujarat voted for Mr Modi in the Assembly elections, angry farmers voted against him. 

Farm-distress led to farmers’ protests across the country. This Budget promises to raise the minimum price offered to farmers for crops, while investing heavily in agricultural markets across India. More money has also been allocated for irrigation projects, and state governments have been directed to purchase extra solar power generated by farmers using solar-powered pumps.  

Mr Modi had stormed to power with his reform agenda and promises to do away with social sector schemes like MNREGA. The government, which was being perceived as a “suit boot ki sarkar”, has clearly taken a socialist turn. 

Mr Modi’s last Budget clearly indicates that he is not in a mood to woo his core votebank, the middle class, anymore.