New Delhi

In an apparent attack at Congress leadership creating a separate power centre during UPA, BJP today said it has restored the credibility, dignity and stature of Prime Minister’s office during its one-year rule and the last word now rests with the Prime Minister.

Addressing a press conference to mark the first anniversary of BJP-led government, senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asserted that the party has become the central pole of Indian politics and the national polity will now be guided along pro-BJP and anti-BJP lines.

BJP also announced a host of programmes including 200 big rallies and 5,000 public meetings across the country to mark the first anniversary of its government which all Union and state ministers, party MPs and office bearers will address.

Jaitley also said minorities in the country were safe and in the last one year, government has made attempts to ensure there is no social tension.

On provocative statements made by BJP leaders, he said they were told not to do so and some incidents like attacks on churches were found to be law and order issues.

“Today all such religious institutions have been provided with security, which was never there in the past,” he said.

“The last year has restored the credibility, dignity and stature of the Prime Minister’s Office. In this government, the last word belongs to the Prime Minister and that is how it should be.

“UPA’s attempt to reduce the stature of Prime Minister’s position by setting up power centre outside the government, we always felt such a system cannot continue in a democracy and we have reversed that,” Jaitley said.

He said the party and the government together displayed a lot of coordination and there is enthusiasm among party workers across the country. “Our party and our cadres are proud of our performance,” he asserted.

“Policy paralysis has been replaced by quick decision- making process, reluctance has been replaced by decisiveness.

There is clarity of direction in the government. A very big change is that corruption has been replaced by transparent governance. Crony capitalism has been replaced by liberal policy-based governance,” he said.

BJP’s opponents have turned desperate: Jaitley

“Desperate” rivals of BJP are cobbling together an “impracticable coalition” in Bihar to stop the saffron party from winning the Assembly polls due there later this year, key party strategist Arun Jaitley said today.

Attacking the alliance between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad-led RJD, the Finance Minister said those who had gone to jail and those who had sent them to jail have joined hands to defeat BJP, a reference to Prasad’s conviction in fodder scam which was pursued vigorously in courts by Kumar.

Noting BJP’s “historic” political success during the last one year in which it formed government in four states while its main rival Congress was defeated in all eight state elections, Jaitley said its opponents had now turned desperate.

“There is desperation among our rivals. They have put together an impracticable coalition to stop us… We are sure that BJP on its own or with the help of our allies will form government in the state,” he told reporters.

Asked if there was any possibility of its former ally (JD-U) joining hands with BJP again, he said, “I don’t know but it does not seem so in Bihar”.

“In Bihar, those who went to jail and those who sent them there are together now,” he said.

After their rout in the Lok Sabha election, old foes Prasad and Kumar joined hands and tasted an early success when they outscored BJP in the assembly bye-polls. But their alliance has come under strain recently with competing demands over state leadership and seat share.

Bihar polls are crucial for BJP and the party is pulling out all stops to win there to regain the political momentum after it was routed in Delhi Assembly elections.

It had been on a roll after scoring a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election and following it up with a string of state election victories before its march was halted by Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi early this.

With the Modi government coming under attack from the opposition over its alleged anti-farmer policies, BJP believes victory in Bihar will give its agenda much-needed political push.

PTI