Accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of having little knowledge of the level of poverty in the country, BJP today demanded an immediate meeting of all chief ministers and leaders of various political parties to discuss the issue of revised BPL benchmark.

"The issue of poverty is too important to be left to the Planning Commission or Prime Minister, as neither the Prime Minister nor the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission have any idea of real poverty. They rarely go to villages and interact with the poor," BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said.

He said their lack of knowledge of the prevailing poverty in the country had been exposed by the revised benchmark for BPL families which excludes those earning Rs 32 in urban and Rs 26 in rural areas from the category.

"Both these economists stand fully exposed through the laughable affidavit (setting new BPL benchmark) filed in the Supreme Court by the Planning Commission, with the approval of Prime Minister," he said.

"The BJP totally rejects the affidavits filed by the Planning Commission with regard to defining BPL and calls upon the government to immediately convene a meeting of state Chief Ministers and political party representatives and discuss the issue in detail," he said.

Sinha said the meeting should discuss in detail the definition of below poverty line and identifying its beneficiaries, besides various reports on the BPL issue.

"This is leading to such unrest in the rural areas, which you can't even imagine sitting here. There is a furore in the rural areas on the issue of below poverty line," Sinha said.

He also alleged that a large chunk of the poor which are on the margins are not included in the below poverty line category, thus leading to this unrest.

The BJP leader also lamented, "the saddest part is that even after 64 years of Independence we have not arrived at a satisfactory definition of poverty."