New Delhi: The Congress on Monday said the party will implement Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s five guarantees as soon as it comes to power in Madhya Pradesh, where assembly polls are due later this year.
Priyanka, who launched the party’s Madhya Pradesh poll campaign on Monday from Jabalpur, promised the voters Rs 1,500 per month for women, LPG cylinder at Rs 500, free power up to 100 units and half bill up to 200 units, restart the farm loan waiver scheme, waive off loans of farmers who were left behind and bring back the old pension scheme for government employees.
“The party will implement the five promises as soon as we come to power,” Congress communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh said. The Congress is trying to implement the template of promises that the party has successfully tried in Himachal Pradesh last year and in Karnataka recently. In both states, Priyanka had led the campaigns and listed the five promises to woo the voters.
In both Himachal and Karnataka, the five guarantees were implemented within days of the party forming the government to showcase that the Congress means business and does not make hollow promises like the BJP. In the Karnataka campaign, the party carefully showcased its three chief ministers Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel in Chhattisgarh and Sukhvinder Sukhu in Himachal Pradesh to convince the voters about the rolling out of the promises.
The plan worked and now Karnataka too will be cited by the party leaders to convince the voters in Madhya Pradesh, said AICC in charge JP Agarwal. “The campaign will centre around the promises made by Priyanka Gandhi. The BJP led by PM Modi had made a lot of promises like 2 crore jobs per year and doubling of farmers' income but nothing has happened so far,” Agarwal told ETV Bharat.
“The coming election is about the future of the people of MP and not about any party. I can’t defeat CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in making grand announcements but in truth. I ask the CM what he has given to the state's people. He has given only price rise, joblessness and mafia rule,” MP Congress chief Kamal Nath said.
According to Congress insiders, they have worked out the economic cost of implementing the five promises in Madhya Pradesh and said allocating funds for the same would not be a problem. Similarly, the Congress plans to focus on the farmers in Madhya Pradesh, who had been getting the benefit of the loan waiver when Kamal Nath had become the chief minister in 2018 but the system was later stopped by the BJP government.
In her speech, Priyanka highlighted how the previous Congress government had extended benefits to 27 lakh farmers by waiving off their loan worth Rs 11,600 crore in one and a half years. She also pointed out that during its short stint, the party government doubled social security from Rs 300 to Rs 600 and around 1 crore families got 100 units of power for Rs 100. Targeting the BJP, she further said that the Congress had built 1000 cow sheds but the BJP government neglected the same.
Also read: 'Shivraj Singh's scams' list longer than PM Modi's abuses': Priyanka begins Congress MP poll campaign
