New Delhi: The Maha Vikas Aghadi will distribute over one lakh guarantee cards in each of the 288 Assembly seats across Maharashtra in a massive outreach programme to convince the voters. The MVA believes that the five guarantees released on November 6 can swing the crucial November 20 election in favour of the opposition alliance the same way the Congress benefited from social welfare guarantees in Karnataka and Telangana earlier, but need to be explained to the voters in the western state.
“We have announced the five guarantees for Maharashtra, but we need to take the message to the voters. This will be done through a massive drive under which our alliance workers will conduct a door-to-door campaign in all 288 Assembly seats and distribute over one lakh guarantee cards to the voters. The Congress had benefited from similar guarantees earlier in Karnataka and Telangana. If this exercise is conducted well, it will have a huge bearing on the election outcome in Maharashtra,” senior Maharashtra Congress leader Charan Singh Sapra told ETV Bharat.
After the MVA guarantees related to women, farmers and youth, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will release a detailed manifesto on November 10, which will list the things the grand old party would like to do if the coalition comes to power in the state.
“The manifesto will talk about a lot of other governance issues going beyond the five guarantees. The voters will come to know what we plan to do in the future,” AICC observer for Maharashtra Avinash Pande told ETV Bharat.
“The Coordination Committees of the MVA have been formed in all the 288 seats and will carry out the outreach. They will also contribute to other aspects of election management. The war of words between the senior leaders of the two rival groups will continue, but the ground-level work will be crucial to any success,” he said.
According to Congress insiders, a major issue in convincing the voters is whether the promises will be delivered or remain only on paper. To deal with the issue the grand old party lined up Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh Sukhvinder Sukhu, Telangana Revanth Reddy and deputy chief minister of Karnataka DK Shiv Kumar to explain how they have implemented the promises made before the elections in their states.
“This will dispel all false propaganda by the BJP against our promises. They copy from our manifestos, but term our guarantees as freebies. When the Chief Ministers speak it gives a clear message to the voters anywhere,” said Pande.
Charan Singh Sapra slammed the saffron party for trying to deflect public attention from real issues like jobs and price rise and farmers’ plight through communal statements like ‘batenge to katenge’ and ‘ek hain to safe hain’.
“Such remarks will become a self-goal for the BJP and will irritate their allies as well. The people of Maharashtra are more concerned about their welfare rather than a divisive agenda. Our manifesto will talk about promoting small industry and generating jobs,” he said.
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