New Delhi: The Congress on Friday slammed the BJP alleging the saffron party had copied items from its Rajasthan manifesto and was making false promises to the voters.
“They have copied our ideas. There are several false promises in the BJP Vachan Patra. For instance, the cheap LPG cylinder. When the Rajasthan government started giving LPG cylinders at Rs 500 from April, the PM criticized the move and termed it as ‘revri’ but now they have promised LPG cylinders at Rs 450.
The catch is that this promise is only for the beneficiaries of the “Ujjawala” scheme. In contrast, our guarantee is for every household. If the Centre wanted, it could have offered cheap LPG cylinders at the national level. After we come to power again, we will give an LPG cylinder at Rs 500 to over 1 crore beneficiaries,” AICC general secretary in charge of Rajasthan SS Randhawa told this channel.
“They talk about a Rs 40,000 crore health infrastructure mission but Rajasthan is the only state in the country where the Chiranjivi Swasthya Yojana is operational. The scheme provides free health insurance up to Rs 25 lakh in an empanelled government or private hospital. No such scheme is running in BJP ruled Gujarat or Uttar Pradesh and there is no such plan by the Central government. What they are saying are just election jumlas. They are making such promises as they are worried,” he said.
According to the AICC functionary, “the BJP has promised to give free scooters to meritorious girl students passing Class 12 but the Congress state government has already been giving scooters to around 30,000 brilliant girl students every year.” Further, Randhawa said the BJP has promised women police stations in every district, women’s desks in every police station and anti-romeo squads in key cities but the Congress state government has already implemented this and has Nirbahaya squads to protect women.
Also read: Nadda releases BJP manifesto for Rajasthan polls; party woos women, farmers
On the BJP’s promise of houses for the poor under the CM’s Housing Scheme, the Congress leader said that till 2013 the grand old party was running such a plan but it was shut down by the BJP when the saffron party came to power. According to the AICC functionary, the Congress poll guarantees in Rajasthan are an extension of the work done by the state government over the past five years.
“The idea of seven poll guarantees has been taken from the work done by the state government. The promises are meant to cushion common people from the high price rise which is a result of the central government’s policies. Now our workers are taking the seven guarantees to the voters and making them aware of the benefits coming their way. Earlier, the camps to provide relief from price rise had been successful and crores of people have registered for the same,” said Randhawa.
“Everywhere, we are telling the people that they should trust our guarantees going by the implementation of the poll promises earlier made in Karnataka,” he said. According to AICC communication in charge Jairam Ramesh, the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which was extended by the Prime Minister recently violating the model poll code, is nothing but a rebranded version of the National Food Security Act passed by the previous UPA government.
