'Happy that women will be benefitted under NYAY scheme'

A day after Rahul Gandhi's dramatic announcement of Rs 72,000 per annum income support move, Congress on Tuesday came out with clarifications that the initiative was not a “top-up” scheme.

Senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter to announce that the NYAY, unveiled by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, was women-centric and the money would be deposited in bank accounts of women of the beneficiary families.

“So happy that under the NYAY scheme, women will be the ones who receive the annual amount of Rs 72,000 directly into their accounts. Empower a woman, empower a family,” Priyanka said on Twitter.

Congress leaders said the announcement was expected to strike a chord with the most backward classes and the extremely backward classes who rank among the poorest of the poor in the country's population.

They said the party has received positive vibes from the extremely backward classes, who were badly affected by the demonetisation exercise implemented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The NYAY initiative would also sway most backward classes, some of whom still support the BJP. Though small in number, voters of these castes help turn the election in a particular party's favour if they exercise their franchise en-block.

Congress also hit back at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for dismissing NYAY as a “bluff announcement”.

Surjewala asked the prime minister and the BJP to clearly spell out whether they support the Congress proposal to give Rs 72,000 annually to five crore poor families under a minimum income guarantee scheme.

“Hypocrite Modiji can happily waive off Rs 3.17 lakh Crore for a handful of crony friends but opposes Rs 6000 per month respite for poor,” the Congress spokesman said.

Surjewala also described NITI Aayog as “Rajniti Aayog” after its Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar criticised the NYAY initiative.