"Congress will, 100 percent, come to power in Telangana and all the six guarantees will be implemented. Nobody should doubt it," he said.
Published Nov 27, 2023 | 2:35 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 27, 2023 | 2:35 PM
Siddaramaiah in Telangana. (X)
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday, 26 November, invited his Telangana counterpart K Chandrashekar Rao to visit his state to see how the five guarantee schemes of the Congress government have been implemented — dismissing Rao’s allegations that the party did not fulfil its poll promises.
Expressing confidence that the Congress would form the next government in Telangana and implement the six poll guarantees given to the state’s people, he said that KCR is going to lose power in the Assembly elections.
Siddaramaiah said that he saw media reports about the allegations made by KCR, his son KT Rama Rao, and some BJP leaders that the Congress government in Karnataka has not implemented the five guarantees it gave to the people ahead of the May Assembly polls that it won there.
He said these allegations are being made in view of the elections by the rival parties.
“The allegations made by opposition parties, these are all false allegations. The BRS party is lying and Chandrashekar Rao is lying. Because he knows that he is going to lose the power (in the Assembly elections),” Siddaramaiah told reporters in Hyderabad.
“When I came here earlier (as part of campaigning), I gave an open invitation to Chandrashekar Rao to come to Karnataka and discuss with us and verify the documents. But he did not come. Even today, I will ask Chandrashekar Rao: Please come to Karnataka and don’t make such allegations unnecessarily for election purposes,” Siddaramaiah said.
“You can verify…I don’t know why they are telling lies. I can understand if Chandrashekar Rao makes a statement that the guarantees are not being implemented because he is facing the elections — and for the purpose of elections he is telling lies and his son is also telling lies. I don’t know why others are telling lies,” he said.
Siddaramaiah said that he was sure that the Congress would win the Telangana Assembly elections.
“Congress will, 100 percent, come to power in Telangana and all the six guarantees that have been promised will be implemented. Nobody should doubt it,” he said.
On the Congress’s five guarantees in Karnataka, he said that the first guarantee “Shakthi” scheme, providing free bus travel for women, was implemented in June and it has logged over 100 crore rides recently.
On the “Anna Bhagya” scheme, which was to provide 10 kg rice for free, Siddaramaiah said the Food Corporation of India refused to supply the additional five kg rice under “pressure” from the Centre and, hence, his government was paying cash instead of the five kg rice promised to each beneficiary through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) since July.
Siddaramaiah further said the “Gruha Jyothi” scheme, which promises 200 units of free electricity to households, started in July.
Regarding “Gruha Lakshmi” scheme, which provides ₹2,000 per month to the women head of the families, he said that the scheme started in August and 1.14 crore beneficiaries have been covered so far and registration is continuing.
Siddaramaiah said the fifth guarantee “Yuva Nidhi” scheme, (₹3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and ₹1,500 for diploma holders) offering unemployment allowances, will commence in January 2024.
These schemes require about ₹38,000 crore for this year and already budget allocation has been made, he said.
There is no question of cheating the people at all, he said, adding that the Congress party never cheated the people. “Whatever promises Congress party made in its manifesto and also the five guarantees, we are implementing and we are going to implement,” he said.
He said all the developmental works are also going on and there is no dearth of funds to carry them out.
Dismissing the charge that Karnataka would become bankrupt due to the guarantee schemes, Siddaramaiah said, “The economy of Karnataka is very good and sound and we are implementing all the promises made to the people of Karnataka.”
When asked about senior BJP leader and former Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa’s accusation that Congress was deceiving the people by not implementing its five pre-poll guarantees after coming to power, Siddaramaiah said he (Yediyurappa) is “frustrated and making false statements”.
Reacting to a comment on reports that Karnataka farmers were staging protests in Telangana, he said, “They are not Karnataka farmers, I know that. No farmer from Karnataka came to Telangana; why will they come and protest here?”
Responding to another query, he said, “We have fulfilled five guarantees in the first phase and also 76 promises. A manifesto is always for five years and at once (in one go) we cannot implement all the promises.”
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