Karnataka: Priyanka set to announce women-specific welfare scheme in Jan 16 rally

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, general secretary of the AICC, will address a rally in Bengaluru on January 16 to highlight the issue of inflation and fuel prices, and announce a welfare scheme to woo women voters in the poll-bound state, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will launch a party initiative to woo half the electorate in poll-bound Karnataka and is set to announce a welfare scheme for them at a big rally in Bengaluru on January 16. The rally, a state-level convention of women party workers, will set off a reach-out program under which the Congress will try to mobilize support of the female voters over the coming weeks.

The Congress, which gave around 17 tickets to women candidates in the 2018 assembly polls and has 6 MLAs, is also looking at ways to field more women candidates this time to empower the segment. For that, the state’s election committee is already exploring at least one potential woman face in every district who can be given a ticket.

“There are a lot of issues related to women both in the cities and the villages of Karnataka. Women are suffering due to social violence, price rise, job losses in the technology sector, and issues like Hijab ban,” Sowmya Reddy, who represents the Jayanagar constituency in the Karnataka Assembly, told ETV Bharat.

“The Congress is already running a program which visualizes every woman in the state as a leader. We are also asking the senior leadership to field more women candidates this time,” she said. Sowmya acknowledged that a promise on the lines of the recent assurance of free electricity up to 200 units is on the cards during Priyanka Gandhi’s rally but said she had no clue about it. “That we will get to know on January 16,” she said.

Both senior state leader Prakash Rathod and Sowmya pointed out that “it was the Congress which gave 50 percent reservation to women in Gram Panchayats and supported reservation for them in assemblies and the Lok Sabha". “When Priyanka ji says something, it is done. The proof is her promise of reviving the old pension scheme in Himachal Pradesh which was done by the state cabinet in its first meeting on Friday,” said Rathod.

“The Congress has been empowering women in the state through the various self-help groups that had been formed under former chief minister SM Krishna,” he said. “We have identified 138 issues and prepared a list in the form of questions. These relate to the promises that the BJP had made in 2018 but has not fulfilled,” said Rathod.

Old-timers recalled that the promise of 7 kg free rice had played a major role in the Congress victory in the 2013 assembly polls. “During 2013-2018, the Siddaramaiah government fulfilled 99 percent of the poll promises. But the BJP never keeps its word. We will educate the voters about this difference in the approach of the two parties,” said Rathod, who accused the ruling party of playing divisive politics. “They make announcements but do not work. The people have realized this,” he added.