Mangaluru: Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh on Monday asked BJP workers not to depend only on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but work hard in the local level for the victory of the party in the coming Assembly elections in the State.

Addressing party workers at the district office of the BJP here, he said that the elections in the State would be an important one to extend the hold of the BJP over another State in the country.

The party was in power in 19 States now, he added.

He said that the Union Budget for 2018-19 would witness a 20 % rise in the total allocation from ₹ 21 lakh crore in the current financial year.

There would be a 62 % to 70% hike in the allocation in the budget for 2019-20. It would be due to the pro-economic measures being taken up by the Union government.

The Jan Dhan Yojana, demonetisation and implementation of GST was taking the country towards transformation, he said.

The Minister said that during Indira Gandhi’s period, banks were only brought under the government and never “nationalised” in its true sense as banking benefits never reached the common people.

The benefits were now reaching the people through the Jan Dhan Yojana, he said. The country had 29 crore bank accounts now, up from 3.40 crore bank accounts prior to 2015. “It is the greatest achievement of [Mr.] Modi ‘Bhai’,” he said.