The five Congress guarantees in Karnataka did the trick electorally. Now, the freebie promise is being replicated in other poll-bound states by the party, with former chief minister Kamal Nath rolling out a series of ‘guarantees’ in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
“For 18 years as the Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan did nothing. Nobody trusts Shivraj. That is the bottom-line,” Kamal Nath told News18 amid his ongoing whirlwind tour of the state to speak about these promises.
Nath on Thursday announced that 100 units of electricity will be free and half the charges will be taken till 200 units for all in the state if the Congress comes to power later this year. “100 units tak maaf, 200 tak half, Shivraj sarkar saaf,” the former CM said.
The second big guarantee that Nath has promised is that women in the state will get Rs 1,500 per month from the government without any pre-conditions.
In Karnataka too the Congress promised 200 units of free electricity and Rs 2,000 to the woman head of every household — which seems to have swung women voters its way. Nath has gone a step ahead in Madhya Pradesh and also promised that an LPG gas cylinder price would be capped at Rs 500, with the state government footing the rest of the cost, which could mean a consumer saving nearly Rs 600 on an LPG cylinder refill.
Among other guarantees, Nath has promised the rollout of the Old Pension Scheme that proved to be a game-changer for the party in Himachal Pradesh earlier. He has also promised to ‘re-start’ the farm loan waiver, which he claims was left incomplete after his government was dislodged due to the rebellion by Jyotiraditya Scindia.
The BJP is attacking such promises to be ‘unfeasible’ given the fiscal burden these will put on the public exchequer to the tune of over Rs 50,000 crore annually. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is also citing how Kamal Nath went back on his earlier promise to give an ‘unemployment allowance’ after he became the CM. Chouhan is citing his new ‘CM Sikho Kamao Yojana’ in which unemployed youngsters will be trained and given stipend of Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 during the same.
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