Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first address to the nation post-Demonetization dolled out few sops to the poor and middle class to women and senior citizens. Modi’s speech gave a feel that he is making a budget speech. On the other side, sources say that there will be more sops in the Union Budget which will be tabled in February.
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Interestingly, they are targeting the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur immediately and the 2019 General Elections as a whole. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also hinted about a possible Tax cut very soon and then there will be the implementation of GST.
All these sops indicate that Modi has started the election preparation well in advance. Usually, the last but one budget before the elections will be an election budget but then, it started even before. Some bucks the government saved from Demonetization will give some elbow space to Modi for such freebies and goodies to the people.
Given the super speed of Modi and the pathetic state of affairs in the opposition, 2019 seems to be very easy at this stage. If BJP manages to win Uttar Pradesh elections conveniently, things will be much easier as the public perception will also be in the favour of BJP.
