‘Headless’ in legislature, Karnataka BJP protests against Congress government for failure over guarantees

The protest was held on the second day of the Assembly’s Budget session, which began on Monday. Incidentally, the BJP has not yet to elect the Leader of the Opposition.

The Assembly, too, witnessed protests with the BJP members criticising the delay in implementing the poll guarantees.

Broken promises, says BJP

BJP sources said the party would protest both inside and outside the Assembly till the conclusion of the session on 14 July. The party demanded the effective implementation of all the five guarantees promised by the ruling party.

The BJP held a day-long protest at the Freedom Park in Bengaluru against the Congress government’s failure in fulfilling the five poll guarantees. (Supplied)

The protest was held under the slogan, “Fulfill the poll guarantees or else vacate the seat.”

“They (the Congress) promised many things. Both Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar wrote letters to every household. So we do not have any fresh debates. We only demand that this government fulfill all the promises that were made during the elections,” former chief minister Yediyurappa told reporters.

Terming the Congress government anti-Hindu, Nagesh said it never kept its word. “They promised every household up to 200 units of free electricity. After winning the elections, now there are ‘conditions apply’,” he taunted the government.

“Same is the case with the promise of distributing money to the unemployed. Earlier they (Congress) said ₹3,000 each will be provided to all unemployed graduates, and ₹1,500 to unemployed diploma holders,” he pointed out.

“Now the government says that the unemployed will not be paid for the first six months, and if they remained unemployed after six months, the money will be disbursed. This is fooling the people,” Nagesh said.

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BJP warns of more protests

Kateel said the BJP would bring the people onto the streets and protest by not paying electricity bills in the coming months.

The BJP has been targeting the Congress over the guarantees, especially over the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme, which promised five kilograms of rice to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

However, due to the non-availability of the required quantity of rice, the government missed the 1 July deadline for rolling out the scheme. Instead of distributing rice, the government decided to credit ₹34 for a kilogram of rice to the bank accounts of beneficiaries until the food grain could be sourced.

The “Anna Bhagya” scheme hit a roadblock after the Union government in June prohibited the Food Corporation of India from selling rice to states in the open market.

One of the guarantees, the “Shakti” scheme offering women free rides on non-luxury government-run buses was launched on 11 June. The “Gruha Lakshmi” scheme providing ₹2,000 a month to women heads of APL and BPL card-holding households would commence in August.

The benefit of the “Gruha Jyoti” scheme — guaranteeing up to 200 units of free electricity for domestic use — would start reflecting on power bills from August.

Similarly, a monthly payment of ₹3,000 to unemployed graduates and ₹1,500 to diploma holders who passed in 2022-23 under the Yuva Nidhi scheme would be launched soon.

Also read: Assembly session begins sans LoP as BJP remains indecisive

‘Headless’ in Assembly

Congress sources told South First that it would be an embarrassment for the BJP if it could not elect an Opposition leader by Friday, 7 July.

To a specific query on the Opposition leader, Yediyurappa said the leader would be decided by Tuesday or Wednesday. “The central observers are here and they will seek the opinion of all MLAs and decide on the Opposition leader by today (Tuesday) evening or by tomorrow (Wednesday),” he said.

Congress Social Media Wing chairperson BR Naidu felt that the BJP would not name the Opposition leader until the presentation of the state Budget.

“The BJP is not going to reveal their Leader of Opposition until the state budget comes up. They are even clueless about how to be in the Opposition,” he ridiculed the saffron party.

“The observers will collect the opinions of all MLAs and head to Delhi after which they would summon BS Yediyurappa to decide the candidate. All these processes will take minimum of two to three days. It will be an embarrassment for the BJP to sit in the Budget session without a leader,” he said.

Naidu further said that the BJP was protesting as if no promises were met even as the Congress has been fulfilling the poll guarantees one by one. He saw the protest as a ploy to lobby with the central leaders to get someone approved as the leader of the Opposition.

“It was the Central government that declined to sell rice to the state. The BJP is not people-friendly. It thrives on hate and, Manipur’s situation continuing unabated is an example,” Naidu said.