Bengaluru: The Congress Thursday assured free public bus travel for all women if the party comes to power in Karnataka, a promise that the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said had already been fulfilled by his government with provisions for the same made in the 2023-24 state budget.
Karnataka is scheduled to hold assembly elections next month and both parties are out to woo voters.
“As soon as the Congress government is formed, on the first day and (according to the) fifth promise, all women of Karnataka will be able to travel for free in public transport buses,” Rahul Gandhi, former member of Parliament from Wayanad in Kerala and Congress leader, said in the Dakshina Kannada district Thursday. He is set to campaign in Kalaburagi, Koppala and Ballari Friday.
“The money that your (BJP) people stole, 40 per cent of that was taken from the women of Karnataka. That is your work. Our work is to give back the money to Karnataka’s women,” Gandhi added.
The Congress has been using the number ’40’ quite liberally in its campaigns, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge even calling the government a 40 per cent one. Their use of the number is believed to be an allusion to the “40% commission” row that erupted in April last year following the death of Belagavi-based contractor Santosh Patil.
In a purported suicide note, Patil had accused former state minister and BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa of demanding 40 per cent commission for a government project.
Meanwhile, CM Bommai reacted to Gandhi’s announcement in a tweet, calling the Congress leader ignorant and the latter’s party out of ideas.
This facility to women of free bus passes is already announced in our budget and necessary provisions have been made. @INCKarnataka is running out of ideas. @RahulGandhi as usual is ignorant of the facts. However people will not believe congress guarantees,” Bommai wrote.
While the two national parties — the BJP and the Congress — are yet to formally release a manifesto, the Janata Dal (Secular) released one late Thursday, in which it promised to revive four per cent quota for Muslims — which was scrapped by the state government earlier this year — and more prominence to Kannada, as a step against the BJP’s perceived Hindi-imposition.
All three parties have made some big promises in a state where no party has got a clear majority since 1999, barring in 2013 when the Congress won 122 of 224 assembly seats following a split in the BJP.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), one of the smaller players in the state, has also released its manifesto with ten poll promises including 300 units of free electricity per month, 33 per cent reservation to women in government, and 80 per cent reservation to locals in jobs if voted to power.
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Poll promises
The Congress has made four other poll promises — Gruha Jyothi Yojane, Gruha Lakshmi Yojane, Anna Bhagya and Yuva Nidhi.
While the Gruha Jyothi Yojane promises 200 units of free electricity to all households in Karnataka, the Gruha Lakshmi Yojane assures every homemaker Rs 2,000 per month to cope with the rising prices of essential commodities. According to the Congress, 1.5 crore women will benefit from this programme.
Anna Bhagya is an extension of the former Siddaramaiah-led Congress government’s food security programme and promises 10 kg free rice to all families below the poverty line in the state. Siddaramaiah’s scheme, back in 2013, gave 30 kgs of rice at Re 1/kg every month to families below the poverty line.
Yuva Nidhi promises Rs 3,000 every month to unemployed, graduate youth for two years and Rs 1,500 every month (for two years) as an allowance for unemployed diploma holders.
Meanwhile, the JD(S) has made 12 poll promises which include waiver of loans taken by Stree Shakti Groups, or women self-help groups, Rs 6,000 allowance to pregnant women for six months, and a hike in widow pension from Rs 900 to Rs 2,500.
The BJP has so far relied on its own “performance” in the past four years in the state and that of the National Democratic Alliance that it leads in the central government.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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