Former NITI Aayog Vice Chairperson Arvind Panagariya said on Monday that the Congress’ proposed Nyoontama Aay Yojana does not have “incentive compatibility” in comparison to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s PM-Kisan Yojana. He said the Narendra Modi-led government will return to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, ANI reported.

“If I give my analysis on this, then in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, approximately the same result will come out as it was in 2014,” Panagariya told the news agency. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi will win again with almost the same majority.”

He said there are many hurdles in the implementation of the Congress’ NYAY scheme, which promises Rs 72,000 per annum to the poorest 20% families of the country. “In total, they will need Rs 3.6 lakh crore for this scheme, which is 13% of the total budget of the central government,” Panagariya said. “Nobody has said how they will get this much money to implement the scheme. This is even more than our defence budget.”

Panagariya said in comparison with the NYAY scheme, the Rs 75,000 crore earmarked under the PM-Kisan Yojana is an inconsiderable sum. Moreover, unlike the Congress, the Centre has outlined how it will procure Rs 75,000 crore to fund the PM-Kisan Yojana, he added.

The former NITI Aayog vice chairperson said he felt Modi would win because the voters have confidence in him. “Secondly, the potential with which Narendra Modi can do election campaigning is way more than the other party leaders,” he added. “In 2014, he covered around three lakh kilometres while doing rallies across India. Another example is none of his Cabinet ministers got involved in any corruption case over the last five years. If we see this in the last two-three decades, this has happened for the first time.”

On the other hand, Panagariya said, the Congress has been unable to rebuild itself over the last five years. He accused the party of doing “brand name politics” in the name of Nehru and Gandhi. “Also, they have not rebuilt any national policy agenda,” he added.

Panagariya said the Goods and Services Tax, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme were the three biggest reforms carried out by the Narendra Modi-led government. “If I look at the United Progressive Alliance regime, I can’t find even a single reform which can stand up against these three.”

However, Panagariya refused to comment on Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s promise that the NITI Aayog will be scrapped if the party comes back to power. “I don’t think it will be good for me to say anything on this since I was the vice chairperson of NITI Aayog,” he said. “I leave it to others to analyse.”

The 2019 General Elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, and the results announced on May 29.