The state BJP will hold a Mahila Maha Sammelan on April 5 to counter chief minister Nitish Kumar's claims on pro-women policies.
Nitish has been a pioneer in women's empowerment, launching cycle scheme and poshak (uniform) yojana for girls, introducing 50 per cent quota for them in panchayats and urban civic bodies and announcing the state's women empowerment policy on March 22. It is such schemes that had ensured his landslide win in November 2010.
But the state BJP leadership wants to use the Mahila Maha Sammelan to send across the message that the schemes Nitish introduced for girls and women's empowerment were not his own but that of the NDA government, of which the BJP was a partner.
The BJP function would be held at SK Memorial Hall. Union HRD minister Smriti Irani, BJP national general secretary and Durg (Madhya Pradesh) MP Saroj Pandey and national president of the BJP's Mahila Morcha, Vijaya Rahatkar are scheduled to attend it.
Keeping the year-end Assembly election in mind, state BJP in-charge Bhupendra Yadav and senior leaders like Sushil Kumar Modi, Nand Kishore Yadav, Mangal Pandey, Union ministers Radha Mohan Singh, Ram Kripal Yadav and others will also attend it.
State BJP Mahila Morcha president Sushma Sahu said: "Through the Sammelan we want to say that the different women schemes Nitish is claiming credit for are not his own, but that of the NDA."
The leaders will also use the opportunity to attack Nitish over rise in atrocities against women in the state. They will also highlight various schemes the Narendra Modi government has announced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana at a function in Panipat in the presence of Smriti and actress Madhuri Dixit.
The Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Yojana's initiative is to improve the sex ratio from 918 girls for 1,000 boys. Under Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, savings accounts would be opened for girls before they attain the age of 10 and the government would provide 9.1 per cent rate of interest.
The women's empowerment policy Nitish announced recently does not exist on the ground but Modi's schemes are more concrete, Sushma said.
