Less than a year to go for Lok Sabha polls, Modi tightens up ministers

The Prime Minister is said to have told his colleagues to be proactive with “taking the message of various government schemes and achievements in the last four years to the public”.

As the NDA government enters its final year before the next Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday convened a meeting of his Council of Ministers wherein he is said to have tightened up the Ministers, according to informed sources.

Convened after a gap of more than three months, it was notably the first meeting of the Council of Ministers after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a series of electoral defeats in various by-polls including on some key Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh such as Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana.

In the recently held 11 by-elections (four Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats), the BJP suffered losses on eight seats including two Lok Sabha seats of Kairana in Uttar Pradesh and Bhandara-Gondiya in Maharashtra.

According to sources, the meeting assessed the work done in the past four years by the NDA government vis-a-vis implementation of various government schemes on the ground, and also discussed the roadmap to the 2019 elections and the Ministers have been asked to “work according to a calendar in an organised way”.

The schemes whose implementation and effectiveness was reviewed included Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Mudra Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana, and Ayushman Bharat among others.

The Prime Minister is said to have told his colleagues to be proactive with “taking the message of various government schemes and achievements in the last four years to the public”.

They have also been asked to plug the loopholes, if any, in the working of their Ministries and departments.

In the last two years, the BJP has lost six Lok Sabha seats in bypolls and currently its tally stands at 273, just one above the halfway mark.