Eye on LS polls, BJP to take 'White Paper' against Cong-led UPA to every state

NEW DELHI: Taking its 'White Paper' over the alleged fiscal mismanagement under the Congress-led UPA during its 10-year rule at the Centre, the BJP will present the report in every state, underscoring how the previous ruling coalition allegedly inflicted fiscal woes on the country and indulged in corruption.

Speaking to ANI, a top source in the BJP said the state leaders will take the Centre's 'White Paper' against the Congress-led UPA to the people through press conferences, nukkad sabhas and other forums as the Lok Sabha polls near.

The source added that the BJP has firmed its strategy and electoral roadmap for the high-stakes Lok Sabha polls. Amid the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday presented a 'White Paper' on the state of the national economy during the UPA years in the Lok Sabha.

She will table a motion in the Lower House on Friday, seeking a discussion on the 'White Paper', in which the Centre brought a raft of allegations against the previous Congress-ruled coalition at the Centre and accused it of running the Indian economy to the ground.

In its 'White Paper', the BJP-led NDA stated that when the BJP-led government came to power in 2014, the economy was in a fragile state, public finances were in bad shape, there was economic mismanagement and financial indiscipline, and there was widespread corruption.

The nearly 60-page 'White Paper' stated further that the banking crisis was "one of the most important and infamous legacies of the UPA government". Further, the paper mentioned that the current government believed in 'nation-first' and not in scoring political points. "Now that we have stabilised the economy and set it on a recovery and growth path, it is necessary to place in the public domain the seemingly insurmountable challenges - left behind as a legacy by the UPA Government," the White Paper read.

"Every challenge of the pre-2014 era was overcome through our economic management and our governance. These have placed the country on a resolute path of sustained high growth.

This has been possible through our right policies, true intentions, and appropriate decisions," the document quoted Sitharaman as saying while presenting the interim Union Budget this year. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Parliament that the BJP was well on course to winning at least 370 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and the National Democratic Alliance would sail past the 400 mark.