Ahmedabad: Having found support from a large number of urban voters in the last two decades, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is now trying to attract a new set of supporters—those who have just risen above the below poverty line (BPL) but still do not qualify in the urban middle class category. Modi didn’t disclose the likely size of the segment.
add_main_imageAmong various other promises, Modi pledged to chart a separate policy for the “neo middle class” if voted to power in state elections later this month at the release of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) poll manifesto on Monday. The poll manifesto, in the form of a “commitment letter”, focuses on development.
The new segment has emerged because of the rapid economic development in the state, Modi said. The state has seen double-digit growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in the decade that Modi has been chief minister, outpacing national growth.NextMAds
The BJP will form a committee to define those who fall in the category and welfare schemes will be worked out for them.
“People identify themselves as poor or middle class or rich. I hope this new term (neo middle class) is not a way to divide the population in order to target and control,” said a member of the faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, who didn’t want to be identified.
Some studies show that about 3% of people rose above the poverty line in a period of 25 years, said Ghanshyam Shah, an Ahmedabad-based political analyst.
The state is going to the polls in two phases. Voting for 87 assembly seats, mostly from the Saurashtra region where BJP rebels such as Keshubhai Patel and Kanu Kalsaria are in the fray, will take place on 13 December. Voting for rest of the 182 seats will take place on 17 December. Results will be announced on 20 December.
In a bid to counter the opposition Congress party’s poll promise offering cheap homes, Modi announced a housing scheme known as the Mukya Mantri Gruh Samruddhi Yojana that would be implemented over the next five years. The promise is to build and allot a total 50 lakh homes with basic amenities—2.8 million in rural areas and 2.2 million in urban areas. The chief minister will head a department dedicated to implementing the ₹ 33,000 crore scheme.
Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil said Modi’s “neo middle class” pitch was an attempt to misguide the middle class. He said the BJP manifesto was a copy of the Congress party’s 12-point poll agenda.sixthMAds
The Modi government is in the process of reviving the Gujarat Housing Board (GHB), a state government body, to develop affordable housing in urban areas, according to a senior government official.
GHB, which has built about 170,000 affordable homes in the past, is laden with debt and hasn’t launched a single housing scheme in the past decade.
The Congress party announced its Gharnu Ghar (own your home) scheme in August, distributing over three million forms in two days. The scheme appeared to strike a chord with women, mainly from the poor and the lower middle class, who queued up to collect the forms in eight cities and over 150 towns of Gujarat.
