In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK, the soft-spoken Rupani sounded confident about the BJP’s prospects. He refuted allegations that his government mishandled the response to Covid-19 and spoke at length about the achievements of his government.
Excerpts:
Q/Civic elections will be held later this month. How is the BJP’s preparation?
A/ In 2015, we performed badly in rural areas. But the situation looks good this time. We will win most of the district and taluka panchayats and municipal corporations. The Congress has not been able to perform in the district and taluka panchayats where it got an opportunity last time. It has been plagued by infighting and corruption. We will win the civic elections and the 2022 assembly elections. The popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is growing and his government has taken many decisions like building the Ram temple and has also introduced several schemes for the poor.
In Gujarat, we paid ₹17,000 crores as support price to farmers in the last three years, and have brought in a new system for crop insurance. We are giving loans to farmers at zero per cent interest. As many as 1.6 lakh people have got government jobs, lakhs of people have been helped in businesses and to get private jobs. Our unemployment rate is 3.4 per cent, one of the lowest in the country. We have launched several welfare schemes for women.
This story is from the February 21, 2021 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the February 21, 2021 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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