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."
Fulfilling a major poll promise, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday launched the enhanced social security pension of Rs 1,500 per month, a threefold increase from Rs 500 earlier given by the SAD-BJP alliance government.
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Purohit took the oath in English. Earlier in the day, he arrived at the Punjab Raj Bhavan and was given a guard of honour by a Punjab Armed Police contingent.
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In a hard-hitting response to his Haryana counterpart's tweets questioning him on farmer welfare, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday ripped into Manohal Lal Khattar's claims, terming them a "pathetic attempt" to cover up the "sustained and persistently shameful treatment meted out" to farmers by his government.
Rawat is scheduled to visit Punjab in a day or two and will talk to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and state president Navjot Singh Sidhu and sort out the issues arising out of the differences between the two leaders.
