Kharge: Congress rolls out free power in Karnataka, sets tone for Lok Sabha poll | Bengaluru News – Times of India
Gruha Jyothi is one of the five pre-poll guarantees issued by the Congress in the run-up to the assembly elections in Karnataka this May. Ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the party has made a big deal of these guarantees, making them the central theme of its campaign, with a target of winning at least 20 out of the 28 seats in the state.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah, who officially launched the Gruha Jyothi scheme by symbolically handing over ‘zero bills’ to 10 consumers, dared BJP to implement similar poll guarantees in the BJP-ruled states if they indeed cared for the poor.
Taking a dig at BJP, Siddaramaiah said people talk a lot about the Gujarat model. “We don’t need the Gujarat model. We have begun the Karnataka model. The PM had said if the guarantee schemes (promised by Congress)] are implemented, the state will go bankrupt, but Karnataka is strong enough financially to fulfil the promises we have made to the people,” the CM said.
With the rollout of Gruha Jyothi, the state government has so far implemented three of the five poll guarantees issued by the Congress. The other two being Shakti, which offers free ride for all women passengers on state-run buses, and Anna Bhagya, which hands out a monthly cash payment of Rs 170 per member in families that are below the poverty line (BPL), in lieu of 5 kg of rice.
Addressing a huge congregation on his home turf of Kalaburagi, from where he had lost the Lok Sabha polls in 2019, AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge said: “If this country must be safe, Congress will have to return to power and INDIA (the alliance of anti-BJP parties) will have to come to power in the Parliament.”
Kharge also hit out at Modi for criticising the Karnataka government’s guarantee schemes while attending a function in Pune recently, claiming that the state was being led towards “bankruptcy”.
“The PM is making such allegations, fearing consequences in Parliamentary polls. Congress always walks the talk, while PM Modi, who had promised to generate two crore jobs and deposit Rs 15 lakh in the bank account of every Indian, has not kept his promises,” he added.
While Congress marked the launch of the Gruha Jyothi scheme as a high-octane event, trying its best to draw maximum political mileage from such a populist scheme, what stuck out like a sore thumb was the absence of Jewargi MLA Ajay Singh, son of former chief minister Dharam Singh, at Saturday’s function here. The MLA’s absence raised eyebrows in political circles and indicated that all was not well within the Congress party. Ajay was one of the aspirants for a ministerial berth in the Siddaramaiah-led dispensation.
Deputy chief minister and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar, addressing the Gruha Jyothi launch programme, said: “I want to ask PM Modi: Mr Prime Minister, you have waived lakhs of crores of industrialists’ loans. Won’t that trigger bankruptcy?” He further said Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin and West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee had said that pressure was mounting on them to launch free schemes in their states as well.
“Has the BJP government delivered such a scheme? Except for former CM BS Yediyurappa, who gave away free bicycles and sarees, the BJP has given nothing to the poor,” Shivakumar added.
Energy minister KJ George said over 2.1 crore households are likely to benefit from the power scheme. “About 1.4 crore households have already registered. Those who register by August 27 will be benefited when they get their bills for August in September first week,” he said.
