Before and after the Karnataka assembly elections, Rahul Gandhi’s core message to the electors was in the form of five guarantees. These guarantees included 200 units of free electricity to every household every month, 10 kilograms of free rice to every Below Poverty Line (BPL) family member, free bus travel for women, Rs 2,000 to women heads of families, and unemployment allowance to graduates and diploma holders for two years.
Freebies are a captivating electoral tool and the Congress used it to sharpen its poll management, riding high on the anti-incumbency sentiments against the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government. It was the thrust of Rahul Gandhi’s messages.
On April 16, 2023, while holding his first rally after elections were announced in the state, he said that these five guarantees will be implemented on the very first day in the first cabinet meeting itself if the Congress is voted to power.
Two days before the elections on May 10, Rahul again tweeted, “Five guarantees for Karnataka’s progress – first day, first cabinet meeting.”
After the Congress’s spectacular victory on May 13, Rahul thanked the people of Karnataka for believing in the party’s campaign, its promises, and the opportunity given. After an impressive win, now came the difficult time for the party to implement these guarantees, with less than a year left to the next Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress government under Siddaramaiah took oath on May 20. Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar was made deputy chief minister. Eight senior MLAs were made cabinet ministers without portfolios. After the government formation, Rahul said the five guarantees will be converted into law in the next two hours. “We do not make false assurances. We follow through with our words. The first cabinet meeting of the new government will take place in one to two hours. With that meeting all five ‘guarantees’ will become laws,” he said.
The first cabinet meeting after the government formation the same day gave in-principle approval to implement all these five guarantees but could not convert them into laws. The CM sought time till the next cabinet meeting. Financial implications and mode of operations were to be discussed to implement the five guarantees, it was said.
When Siddaramaiah was asked why all this was not considered while announcing these promises to the electorate, he assured his government’s intent to move ahead and implement them. Expecting the promises to cost Rs 50,000 crore a year, the CM said it should not be a problem in a state with a budget of Rs 3 lakh crore.
A calculation with empirical data available for the state shows three of these five guarantees—free power, Rs 2,000 to the woman head of every family, and unemployment allowance to graduates and diploma holders—were expected to cost a whopping Rs 54,000 crore. Add free food grain and free bus rides for women, and it would go up even further, to around Rs 60,000 crore, though the final cost of these five guarantees can only be known once they are out and operational.
On May 27, two more ministers took oath, taking the total ministerial count to 32, along with the chief minister and the deputy chief minister. The portfolios were announced on May 28.
The second cabinet meeting happened on June 2, when the Siddaramaiah government approved all the promised five guarantees. He assured the state of fulfilling the guarantees within this financial year only. The free power and 10 kg food grains to BPL families schemes will be launched on July 1. The guarantee to give Rs 2,000 to the women heads of families will be launched on August 15. Members from BPL, APL, and Antyodaya card holder families will be eligible for it. Women can avail of free bus rides from June 11 but only on non-AC buses and within Karnataka.
On June 3, a government order was issued for unemployment allowance to graduates and diploma holders. Passed out in 2023 but six months without a job will make a youth eligible. An unemployed graduate will get Rs 3,000 every month for two years while for an unemployed diploma holder, it is Rs 1,500 every month.
It took the Siddaramaiah government 12 days to approve these guarantees. One was launched after 13 days of government formation, another one will be launched on June 11 or after 21 days, the third and fourth ones after 41 days, and the fifth one after 86 days.
The reason the state Congress government has quickly moved to implement four of the five promises is future electoral compulsions.
India will see four big assembly elections later this year, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. The Congress is a key player in these states with its governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The assembly elections will be followed by the Lok Sabha elections after some months. The Congress is trying to form a coalition to outdo the BJP and the party has, time and again, indicated that Rahul Gandhi is its prime-ministerial candidate.
To make its electoral road ahead smoother, Karnataka will work as a primer for the Congress. Otherwise, just like there was the anti-incumbency wave against the previous BJP government in the state, there can be similar sentiments against the Congress in states it rules, and this will be a factor not only in the upcoming assembly polls but also in the Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP has done exceedingly well in assembly and Lok Sabha elections since 2014, breaking the jinx in states like Uttar Pradesh and retaining its governments in Gujarat, Assam, and Uttarakhand. Good governance can be the only way forward for the Congress even if it is through the implementation of freebies that are expected to hurt the country’s financial health in the long term.
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