Visakhapatnam, Nov 3: Senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu today alleged that the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre was planning to conduct early general elections to escape from its failures, saying no amount of “make-up” (reshuffle) can prevent its “pack-up” in 2014.
“There were indications that the UPA government might go for vote-on-account, announce populist schemes and then dissolve the Parliament in March next year as it has miserably failed on all fronts and is steeped in several scams,” the former BJP President said in a press conference here.
He said the recent cabinet reshuffle was a desperate attempt to divert the attention of the people and cover its pitfalls.
“Any attempt of change in ministries would not help the Congress from its rout in the coming elections,” Naidu said.
“The change in the Oil ministry was the classic case of how this government was functioning. It was proved that the UPA did not know how to run a coalition government. Also, people expected that ministers who are facing serious charges to be removed. But shockingly all of them were retained and even more worse, some of them were promoted,” he said.
The Congress policy is to “promote corruption and demote honesty” and all these changes are “make-up before the pack-up,” he commented.
Naidu said that the people of the country are of the opinion that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh replaced Jaipal Reddy with Veerappa Moily as the new petroleum and natural gas minister, due to pressure from industrial groups and corporate houses.
He alleged that the UPA government had totally failed to control the price rise and protect the interests of the farmers and landless poor in the country.
“Is this the way to run a government. How casual and careless they are,” he asked.
Naidu said the UPA's reforms were anti-people and putting more burden on common man.
The economy is in shatters and the interest rates were high. The fiscal deficit was 5.3 and the Inflation was above 7.3 and GDP now six, he pointed out.
He also criticised Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the PM on the cap of LPG cylinders.
“Prime Minister says that for majority of population six cylinders are sufficient while the Congress President said nine cylinders were needed. There is no co-ordination between them,” Naidu said.
