Raipur: Freebies have become an integral part of the electioneering in India that political parties use for wooing voters. Chhattisgarh is scheduled to go to polls later this year. Thus, ruling Congress along with BJP and AAP are leaving no stones unturned to ensure in bringing voters to their side.
AAP, which is seeking to make in-roads in the state, on Saturday announced 10 guarantees for the upcoming polls. These include free electricity, Rs 1000 monthly allowance for women, Rs 3000 monthly allowance for the unemployed, free quality education for school children, free pilgrimage for the senior citizens and many others.
Congress is trying every means to secure its hold over Chhattisgarh. During his Independence Day speech, chief minister Bhupesh Baghel announced free coaching facilities for students preparing for engineering and medical entrance tests along with free bus rides for school and college students. Also, he announced a monthly pension of Rs 1500 for labourers aged above 60.
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When it was in power, BJP too had promised free goodies. The party distributed subsidised foodgrains and free bicycles, laptops and mobile phones along with free electricity to farmers.
Rajya Sabha MP and national organisation secretary Dr Sandeep Pathak said that the party will provide "free revdi" (freebies) even if it draws criticism, "If any party has problem with providing free revedi, they can refrain from doing so. Who does not like freebies?" he asked. "This is public money, tax payers' money. It is good that the people's money is being saved. If we are giving free electricity to the public, what is the problem of the other parties?" he added.
Senior BJP leaders of the state said that AAP is not a factor in this election as the contest will be only between them and the Congress. Amit Chimnani, head of BJP state media department said, "AAP will not have any effect in Chhattisgarh. I do not think that the public will pay attention to what promises it has made. Congress has cheated the public during its tenure. The electricity bill has not been halved despite being promised. Infact, the electricity charges have been increased five times. The government collected more from the public than the subsidy they gave. It is only the loans of the government committees that have been waived. Majority of the promises made by the ruling government remain unfulfilled," Chimnani said.
He said that BJP will introduce whatever policy is needed for the people. All schemes launched by the BJP have been appreciated by the people, Chimnani added.
Taking a dig at the BJP, Congress media spokesperson Dhananjay Singh Thakur said that if the BJP had fulfilled the promises it had made to the people then it would not have lost the polls last time. BJP had even promised to give jersey cow to the tribals, Rs 5000 unemployment allowance to class 12 pass-outs and bonus to the farmers, he said adding that the saffron party had made many such promises which were never fulfilled.
Thakur said that many parties make promises but they fail to implement those "The Congress is working on fulfilling 34 out of 36 promises it had made to the people. Making an announcement is one thing and implementing it is a completely different matter. Be it Arvind Kejriwal or Narendra Modi, both have cheated the public," Thakur said.
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Political expert and senior journalist Diwakar Muktibodh said that the announcement of freebies affect electioneering process both directly or indirectly. Be it the previous BJP government or the present Congress government, both used freebies to woo voters during polls.
