Priyanka Gandhi sounds poll bugle in MP with five 'tested' promises
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 12 Jun, 2023 10:53 AM
Bhopal, June 12 (IANS) Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Monday kick-started party's poll campaign for Madhya Pradesh Asembly polls with five promises on the line of Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, where it won recently.
Priyanka's rally in Jabalpur also indicated that the Congress will corner the ruling BJP highlighting scams, especially alleged corruption in Mahakal Lok corridor project.
Like in 2018, the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi had promised to wave off farmers loans, and the party under the leadership of Kamal Nath had managed to return to power after 15 years gap, Priyanka sounded the poll bugles with offering financial scheme of Rs 1500 per month, LPG cylinder at subsidised rate of Rs 500 along with cheaper electricity.
Worth mentioning that the Congress promised to provide Rs 1500 to women (with certain conditions) under its proposed scheme 'Nari Samman Yojana' to counter the BJP's 'Ladli Behna Yojana' launched by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently. Similarly, subsidised cooking gas will counter Prime Minuter Narendra Modi's flagship 'Ujjawala Yojana' launched in May 2016.
Besides these, the Congress also made another major announcement for implementing the old pension scheme (OPS) to gain support of state government employees and their families in the coming elections. The cheaper electricity is akin to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced in its debut election in 2013 and since then it maintained the same in states it contested the elections.
"The Congress government in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has restored the OPS. Our government in Karnataka has cleared the five guarantees (the poll promises made by the party there)," Priyanka said while addressing a mammoth poll gathering in Jabalpur on Monday.
Notably, the Congress made the similar five-point promises in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka and managed uproot the BJP from both states and formed the government with absolute majority.
In her speech, Priyanka hit out at Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government highlighting issues like atrocities against women and tribals, unemployment, scams broke out in the past 18 years in Madhya Pradesh. Referring to collapse of Saptarishi idols in Ujjain's Mahakal Lok corridor, Priyanka said, "Shivraj government did not spare even the God."
Meanwhile, mocking the BJP's 'double-engine government' poll talk, the General Secretary said, "We have seen a lot of double and triple-engine governments, but people of Himachal and Karnataka have given a befitting reply in the polls."
During deliberations, the Chief Minister envisaged opportunities for mutual collaboration in business and solutions. He said that the alliance could provide on-field handholding to Punjab farmers in best practices of crop management.
Balkaur Singh, whose son was shot dead in daylight on May 29 close to his Moosa village in Punjab on May 28, had complained of uneasiness on Thursday night following which he was admitted to a private hospital in Patiala from where he was shifted to the PGIMER here.
Majithia told the media here that this was also necessary because the AAP government had neither made the FIR registered in this case public even after 24 hours, nor taken any action against any BJP leader or middlemen involved.
The matter came to the fore after the victim narrated the ordeal to her parents who rescued her and later approached the Women police station at Gurugram's Sector-51 and registered a case against the accused on Wednesday. The victim told the police that she had met Pooja at a Gurugram mall a month ago. Pooja had offered her a job at a doctor's clinic.
The local people and Bishal's family members claimed that he was found with multiple wounds on Wednesday. It is alleged that Bishal was killed for not agreeing to convert to Christianity in order to marry his tribal girlfriend. Though the police are yet to confirm whether the youth was killed or committed suicide, they have arrested five people in connection with the case.
According to a source with the Ministry, the diplomats see it as a question of credibility and said that such tall claims should be avoided as it hurts the credibility of the country and the government too. The source said that it has left the diplomats embarrassed.
