Congress should keep mum and allow government to deliver: Dharmendra Pradhan

JAMSHEDPUR: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today asked the Congress to refrain from making irresponsible statements and allow the BJP-led central government to deliver.
"The Congress should have maintained silence for sometime as a constructive opposition party and allowed time for the government to deliver," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Pradhan said.

On AICC President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's criticism of the Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan said Congress leaders should know that the scheme was launched to open bank accounts of those who have been deprived of the facility for decades at zero balance.

Over 6.5 crore accounts have been opened within three months after the scheme was launched and over Rs 5,000 crore deposited by the poorer section of the society, he said at a press conference here.

Pradhan asked the Congress leadership to refrain from making such 'irresponsible' statements and said the party failed to learn a lesson from its debacle in the Lok Sabha polls as well as assembly election in Maharashtra and Haryana, where it had ruled for 15 and 10 years respectively.

The minister said the prices of petrol decreased seven times and that of diesel twice in just three months, providing relief to the people.

"The policy of the Congress was to raise the prices petroleum products while our policy is to decrease it," claimed Pradhan, who has been campaigning in the state for two days.

Asked if BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate for Jharkhand would be decided during the Prime Minister's visit to the state tomorrow, Pradhan said the party was in the fray with collective leadership and the chief ministerial candidate would be decided following the result of the election.

Stable government was the only issue in this election as people were fed up with the lack of development and employment opportunities due to political instability, he said.