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."
A police official said that the two men, wearing masks, entered the bank branch at around 9.45 a.m. when only three employees were present there, and threatened the staff with a pistol. They forced the staff to open the vault where Rs 10 lakh was kept and fled with the money by 10.30 am.
The Chief Minister, who reviewed the arrangements for the mega event here, said Punjab is fully ready to host the sessions and asked the officers to ensure foolproof arrangements for the working sessions slated to take place at the holy city of Amritsar next week.
The arrested customers have been identified as Anil, Rajan, Sagir, Abhishek and Harish. The house belongs to one Neeraj Bhati. Police recovered six mobile phones, Rs 2,100 in cash and objectionable items from their possession.
As during over one-hour address in English, the Governor was referring to 36 government school principals being sent on a five-day leadership development programme to Singapore, Bajwa again stood up and reminding Purohit about his letter to Mann on the issue.
The arrested persons have been identified as Zahir Hossain Mollah and Giasuddin Mondal. Both are residents of North 24 Parganas district. During questioning, they admitted that they crossed the border to Bangladesh to get the gold biscuits from one Karim Mondal -- a resident of Jessore district there.
