The game of one-upmanship is on between the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh. Early last year, AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi had accused the Mayawati Government of mismanagement in the implementation of the NREGS in the Bundelkhand region of the state. A year later, the state Government has nominated three districts from the same region for the National Award for Excellence in the implementation of the same scheme.

With the state Government nominating the same districts where the Congress had alleged poor implementation of the scheme, the six-member panel, appointed by the Central Government to scrutinise the districts nominated for the award, is in a fix, especially because the Centre has planned an NREGS mela in the Capital in February. The awards will be distributed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in this mela. As many as 41 districts have been nominated from across the country for the first of its kind national award.

Rahul Gandhi had faced a hostile district administration in Jhansi when he tried to lodge his complaints regarding mismanagement of NREGS. Later, the UP Congress had filed a complaint against officials of the state Government for alleged misappropriation of Rs 200 crore in the special plantation scheme for Bundelkhand.

Mayawati Government has nominated three districts — Jhansi, Jalaun, Banda — from Bundelkhand, where Rahul had alleged massive mismanagement of the UPA’s flagship scheme. The only other district nominated for the award is Sonbhadra.

“My father used to say that only 15 paisa out of a rupee reaches people. After seeing the situation here I feel that not even five paisa of a rupee is reaching the people here,” Rahul Gandhi had said in Jhansi in January last year while lamenting the poor implementation of the scheme.