FDI derails BJP’s coal march

The UPA government's decisions to allow FDI in multi-brand retail, diesel price hike and introducing cap on subsidised LPG cylinders have derailed the BJP's campaign against the Congress on coal block allocation.

As part of its strategy to take the "battle against corruption" down to the grassroots level, on September 13 the BJP core group had decided to hold state and district level marches between September 17 to 24 to demand Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation over the coal block allocation. It had decided to engage its leaders to lead "Raj Bhavan Chalo" marches in state capitals to petition the Governors demanding the PM's resignation. The core group was scheduled to meet again on September 25 to assess the feedback received from its week-long campaign.

But before the campaign could start, UPA government's decisions on FDI in retail, and fuel hike forced the BJP to shift its focus away from coal block issue. The BJP leaders got busy in preparations for the Thursday's "Bharat Bandh". In UP, all the senior leaders were send to the districts to make the bandh successful. "The campaign could not start at some places due to subsequent developments like FDI and resignation of Trinamool ministers," said BJP national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. BJP leaders did not take out a single march in any district on the issue after September 17 and neither met Governor to give the memorandum.

In other states too like Gujarat, Punjab and neighbouring Uttarakhand, BJP got distracted from the coal issue.

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