Karnataka Assembly polls: BJP offers farm waiver, laptops

Bengaluru/Hubballi: Reaching out to farmers, the BJP’s manifesto for the Karnataka Assembly polls released on Friday promised allocation of Rs 1.5 lakh crore for irrigation projects and waiver of farm loan up to Rs 1 lakh borrowed from nationalised and cooperative banks even as Congress president Rahul Gandhi dismissed the document as “a poorly crafted fantasy built around a weak plot”.

The BJP manifesto, unveiled by BJP state unit president and the party’s chief ministerial candidate B.S. Yeddyurappa, offered free laptops for college students, free smart phones for women from BPL families, an anti-corruption helpline in chief minister’s office and 300 new ‘Annapoorna Canteens’ for affordable meals.

The manifesto’s special focus on farmers was evident from a proposal to launch a Rs 5,000 crore “Raitha Bandhu Market Intervention Fund” to cushion farmers against the effects of price fluctuations. The saffron party also offered foreign study tours to farmers to Israel and China to study agricultural practices.

The BJP also sought to send a strong anti-corruption message through its polls promise of enacting a Karnataka Whistleblower Act to protect those exposing corruption.

The party also promised to release a white paper on the financial health of the state under the Congress rule.

For women voters, the BJP has offered a “Vivaha Mangala” scheme under which Rs 25,000 and 3 gm of gold will be gifted to brides of families living below poverty line (BPL). The party also promised sanitary napkins for BPL women at Rs 1 under the “Stree Suvidha” scheme.

A “Go Seva Ayog” aimed at cow protection would also be revived, the party said.

BJP MP and state leader Shobha Karandlaje said that the manifesto was prepared after consulting over three lakh people.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP’s poll promises. “The BJP Karnataka manifesto, inspired by Narendra Modi, is a poorly crafted fantasy built around a weak plot, that has nothing unique to offer voters. If you’ve read the Congress manifesto, don’t waste your time on this one,” said Mr Gandhi in a tweet.

“Rating: 1/5? Recommendation: Avoid,” he said, while rating the BJP manifesto.

The Congress manifesto for the Karnataka Assembly polls, released on April 27, promised to create one crore jobs and spend Rs 1.25 lakh crore on irrigation over the next five years if re-elected to power. The party promised to make Karnataka malnutrition-free and vowed to create of 15-20 lakh jobs every year. It also offered free sanitary napkins for girl students in government colleges and shared a vision for promoting the IT sector and offer subsidy to start-ups.

At a rally in Gadag district, Mr Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has often called the Siddaramaiah government corrupt and a “10 per cent sarkar”, saying that he had no moral right to speak about corruption when he himself shared the dais with several ex-jailbirds among BJP leaders during his campaign in the state.

“The Reddy brothers have looted the state exchequer to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore. The amount they have looted equals the funds utilised by the UPA government at the Centre across the country under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mgnregs) to provide employment to rural labourers,” he said, adding that although the Congress had jailed the Reddy brothers for their involvement in  corruption, Mr Modi had released them after coming to power.

“The money looted by them belongs to the farmers and should have been used to waive off their loans. The farmers, workers and all the poor are with the Congress as it practices what it preaches,” the Congress president said, promising to set up more food processing industries to help farmers and fetch them a good price for their produce.

As for Mr Modi’s criticism of him, Mr Gandhi said he did not believe in making personal attacks against the Prime Minister of the country. “I always speak about Mr Modi with respect without using bad language. This is the history and culture of the Congress,” he said.

Lashing out at the BJP for its failure to generate employment as promised, he claimed Karnataka was the main centre of job creation in the country and this had been acknowledged by Mr Modi himself and a few of his Cabinet colleagues.