BSP chief Mayawati targets Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot over 'Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill'

BSP chief Mayawati has targeted the Ashok Gehlot-led Rajasthan government. She alleged that the Rajasthan government's minimum income guarantee scheme was for political interest and it has nothing to do with public interest.

Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Sunday lashed out at the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress Government in Rajasthan on the recently passed Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023.

The 67-year-old New Delhi- born BSP chief made a scathing attack on the Rajasthan government, saying the Bill was in the interest of the state government. On Tuesday, July 18, the Rajasthan government tabled the Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023, which seeks to cover the entire adult population of the state with guaranteed wages or pensions.

In a Tweet in Hindi, Mayawati said, "The announcement of the minimum income guarantee scheme etc by the Congress government of Rajasthan just before the Assembly elections is less of public interest and more a decision of their political interest. Due to this, it is difficult for poor people to get immediate relief, yet is it appropriate to spend huge amounts of government money only on publicity?"

Mayawati referring to the political friction among the Rajasthan Congress leaders says the public welfare works could have been started much earlier.

"Although the Gehlot government kept sleeping like a 'Kumbhakarna' throughout its tenure and was involved in mutual political upheavals. Otherwise, many works related to the public interest and public welfare should have been started by the government much earlier due to the poverty, unemployment, backwardness and poverty of the people of the state.

The Rajasthan government on Friday, July 21, passed the Rajasthan Minimum Guaranteed Income Bill, 2023, which promises 125 days of work a year for all families in the state. The bill also guarantees a minimum pension of Rs 1000 per month to the elderly, the specially-abled, widows and single women, which will increase by 15 per cent every year.

Assembly elections in Rajasthan are scheduled to be held later this year. While the Opposition BJP and the ruling Congress will battle it out, the Bahujan Samaj Party is also expected to field candidates from all the 200 constituencies in the state.