From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday (June 12) launched the party’s campaign for the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections with a big rally that was addressed by party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who promised if the party came to power in the state, one woman in every household would get a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500.
Ahead of the rally, Priyanka Gandhi offered prayers on the banks of the river Narmada in Jabalpur, along with state Congress chief Kamal Nath and other party leaders.
“The list of scams in Madhya Pradesh is longer than the abuses that the Prime Minister says are used to target him,” Priyanka Gandhi said at the rally in Jabalpur.
What has the BJP done over the last three years in the state? Can any of you say your life has improved under the current government?” she asked.
Referring to the party’s recent election victories in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka, Priyanka said the two states had given a fitting” reply to the BJP.
Jabalpur is at the centre of the state’s Mahakoshal region, which has a sizable number of tribal voters. The city is known as the cultural capital of Madhya Pradesh.
Congress leader Vivek Tankha said Vadra chose Jabalpur, his home town, to launch the party’s poll campaign because Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra did not pass through the region. He urged her to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh to strengthen the hands of Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress won the 2018 Madhya Pradesh election but the Kamal Nath government collapsed two years later, after Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out and switched to the BJP, taking 22 party MLAs with him. Most of the defectors were comfortably re-elected as BJP candidates.
The BJP has accused the Congress of pursuing “soft Hindutva” in the run-up to the state polls.
Refuting the allegations, the party’s PC Sharma said, “The BJP separate Lord Rama from Sitaji, we say Jai Siyaram, they say Jai Shriram… they do politics of religion, we do politics by following religion, be it Lord Krishna, Lord Rama. They are gods of justice… What has happened in Himachal, Karnataka — God will do the same justice in Madhya Pradesh”
High on the success of poll guarantees announced by the party in Karnataka, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra rolled out a bunch of guarantees for poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
She said if the party came to power in the state, one woman in every household would get a monthly allowance of Rs 1,500.
Priyanka also announced that 100 units of electricity would be given free of cost to every household and LPG cylinders would be given at Rs 500 each.
Priyanka said the old pension scheme would be brought back if Congress came to power in the state.
Noting that the Kamal Nath-led government had waived loans of a large number of farmers during its brief tenure in the state, Priyanka said the loans of the remaining farmers would also be waived if the Congress came to power.
People should no more allow the BJP to take them for a ride, she said.
Priyanka said the Congress always kept the promises made during the elections. The guarantees made in Karnataka had already been passed by the state cabinet, she said.
Former chief minister Kamal Nath, who continues as the state Congress chief, was among those present.
