By IANS
Raipur : Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), hit by considerable infighting, is now thinking of ideas to increase its vote bank to retain power in the 2008 assembly polls.
The state government announced at a party meet that cycles would be distributed to underprivileged girls.
At the party's working committee meet held at Surguja district in northern Chhattisgarh, senior BJP leaders discussed ways to attract voters from the "weaker pockets".
Responding to his colleagues' concern, Chief Minister Raman Singh announced at the meet Sunday that the government would offer cycles to 22,000 girls of poor families who would be enrolled into Class 9 in nearby schools.
"The fresh offer to poor families is just a well-designed poll gimmick by the chief minister who is presently under attack for his style of functioning and ignoring party leaders," a party leader told IANS Tuesday.
The Chhattisgarh government already provides cycles to 40,000 girls belonging to scheduled caste and scheduled tribe communities enrolling in Class 9 for the past three years under the Saraswati Cycle Scheme.
"Providing cycles to another 22,000 girls from the current educational session will the government an additional Rs.45 million. This is a bait offered by Raman Singh to voters of areas traditionally held by Congress to switch over to the BJP and help the party remain in power," a dissident BJP legislator said on conditions of anonymity.
Raman Singh, heading the BJP government since December 2003, is facing a revolt within the party with at least 22 of 53 legislators criticising his style of functioning.