The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing up to launch a nationwide grassroots campaign next week to counter the Congress party's offensive against the new rural employment law. This political mobilization comes just a day after the Congress announced a nationwide protest programme to 'save' the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which has been replaced by the Viksit Bharat-Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025.
Door-to-Door Campaign Ahead of Crucial State Elections
According to BJP insiders, the outreach programme will be announced in the coming week and is structured to seek maximum impact down to the polling-booth level, especially in rural India. This strategic move is timed months before crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.
The campaign will involve a door-to-door effort, particularly in the countryside where the major chunk of the scheme's beneficiaries reside. A BJP leader stated that the outreach will focus on a point-by-point rebuttal of allegations made by the Opposition, especially the Congress, that the new law dilutes the job guarantee framework. The party decided to embark on this campaign as soon as the bill was tabled in the Lok Sabha last month.
Starting with a national-level announcement, each of the BJP's state units will roll out the campaign locally. The Congress's protest programme, in contrast, is scheduled to run from January 10 to February 25.
Political Narratives Clash Over Rural Employment
Union Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan set the tone for the BJP's counter-attack on Sunday. He dubbed the Congress's protest a "Bhrashtachar Bachao Sangram" (Save Corruption Struggle). Chouhan accused the Congress of being against "gram, kaam, Ram (village, work and Lord Ram)" and alleged that corruption is part of its DNA, which led graft to become synonymous with MGNREGA, necessitating the new law.
The Centre maintains that the new law makes the rural job guarantee framework stronger. Key provisions highlighted include an increase in guaranteed employment days from 100 to 125, an unemployment allowance if work is not provided within the stipulated time, and compensation for delays in wage payment.
For the BJP, framing the new law as a bid to end endemic corruption in a Congress-era scheme links back to the anti-corruption narrative that brought it to power in 2014. This counter-mobilization aims to prevent the Opposition from gaining momentum before the next round of state polls.
Congress and Opposition Mount Defence of MGNREGA
The Congress has launched a fierce defence of the MGNREGA, a centrepiece of the UPA government's achievements and a key promise in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi last week accused the BJP-led NDA of seeking to "end MNREGA." He alleged the new law's purpose was to erase the right to employment for the poor, steal economic and political power from the states, and hand over "money to billionaire friends."
Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, announcing the party's nationwide campaign on Saturday, called MGNREGA a "lifeline for India's rural economy." He argued that while MGNREGA gave the poor a right to livelihood, the new VB-G RAM G law converts that inalienable right into a government handout.
The criticism is not limited to the Congress. Other Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress (TMC), have opposed the new Act. The West Bengal government has notably renamed its own rural jobs scheme after Mahatma Gandhi.
This escalating political battle over rural employment guarantees sets the stage for a heated political discourse in the run-up to the state elections, with both major national parties seeking to consolidate their support among rural voters.
