Irani hails high women turnout, urges them to vote for change

Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani addressed voters in the poll-bound state. Claiming a large turnout of women voters in the first phase of the Assembly polls bodes well for the NDA’s electoral fortunes, Irani appealed to women to turn up in even larger numbers in the subsequent phases for ensuring a change of guard in the state for development.

“I thank women for turning up in large numbers and voting in the first phase of the Assembly polls for that explains their craving for development and change...I appeal to them to exercise their franchise in even larger numbers in the remaining phases of polls to ensure a change of guard in the state,” she said.

“I am sure you (women) don’t want a spectre of jungle raj to grip Bihar again,” Irani said and promised that the BJP-led NDA government will ensure development and progress, which has eluded the state for a long time.

Wooing women voters, Irani quoted the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to hit out at the Nitish Kumar government for deteriorating law and order situation in Bihar and said that rape cases had surged by 25 per cent between 2012-14.

Outlining the Centre’s commitment for the empowerment of women, she said that the Centre has kept pace with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expectations by constructing toilets in government schools for benefit of girls even as 30 lakh people have surrendered subsidised cooking gas connection so that women in rural areas can get LPG cooking gas <g data-gr-id="34">cyclinder</g> at subsidised rate and stop using <g data-gr-id="35">fuel wood</g> for cooking.

About Bihar-specific steps taken by her ministry, Irani said that the NDA government has fulfilled its commitment to name the central university in Motihari after Mahatma Gandhi, a demand that the UPA government had rejected.

The IIM at Bodh Gaya, which was sanctioned by the Centre earlier this year, has already started academic activities, she said, adding that Mudra Bank has already started functioning to provide for loans to the youths for <g data-gr-id="40">self employment</g> venture. “We have capabilities to fulfil aspirations of the youth,” she said.

Meanwhile, expressing confidence that a huge section of voters in Bihar, cutting across caste lines, would vote for a change, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Anil Jain on Thursday alleged that to get minorities’ votes rival parties were trying to make them feel insecure.

“Minorities are being made to feel insecure. And this is being done by Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad. They are doing this to get votes,” Jain said on the sidelines of a ‘Bihar Innovation Conclave’ in the national Capital. 

The BJP leader claimed both the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) were worried that All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi may dent their votes, but were finding it difficult to speak anything against him.