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Congress unveils poll manifesto in T’gana
Rahul Gandhi unveils Congress manifesto with five guarantees for Lok Sabha elections, promising job opportunities, financial aid, and support for farmers and women.
Unveiling the Congress manifesto with five guarantees for the Lok Sabha elections, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said his party, if voted to power at the Centre, would implement these in letter and spirit, as it has done in Telangana after coming to power in the November 30 assembly elections.
Addressing an election rally at Tukkuguda on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Gandhi said the people of Telangana had seen how the Congress had been striving to implement the six guarantees given to them in the assembly elections.
“In the last three months, it (Telangana government) filled up 30,000 jobs. It implemented guarantees like supply of LPG cylinder for ₹500, free bus travel for women and free power supply up to 200 units,” he said. “Similarly, we shall implement all the five guarantees being promised at the national level, if the party is voted to power at the Centre in the coming Lok Sabha elections.”
Stating that the Congress manifesto would change the face of the country as it reflected the spirit of the common man, Gandhi said his party had promised to ensure unemployed youth would get job opportunities by providing them training, besides paying a stipend of ₹8,500 a month.
“Under the Mahila Nyay programme, we shall credit an amount of ₹1-lakh a year directly into their (poor women’s) accounts,” Gandhi said. “We shall increase the minimum support price for farmers as per the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission and minimum wages would be increased to ₹400 per day.”
Although 90% of the country’s population comprised poorer and weaker sections, including 50% OBCs, 8% STs and 15% SCs, their percentage in any institution are not in proportion to their population, he said. “We shall bring a new lease of life for these weaker sections by taking up a caste census to find out their socioeconomic status.”
Healleged that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government in Telangana had misused the police, intelligence and official machinery to suppress opposition parties by tapping their phones. The Narendra Modi government, too, was misusing the central agencies to harass opposition parties, he said.
“The Enforcement Directorate has been made an extortion directorate. The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) was used to target the industrialists and companies to collect party funds in the name of electoral bonds, which was a big scam,” he alleged.
Gandhi also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of conspiring to abolish the Constitution, which the Congress will oppose. “We shall fight tooth and nail to protect the Constitution and democracy in the country,” he said.
The general elections are a battle between the BJP, which has money power and is backed by corporate forces, and the Congress, which has the love and affection of the people, Gandhi said. “I have a familial bond with you and I shall continue to serve you all through my life,” he said.
Gandhi said he was ready to come to Telangana whenever the people wanted. “I am sure under the leadership of the Congress, Telangana would be a role model for the entire country. I am sure Made in Telangana products would overtake the Made in China goods in the entire world,” he said.
Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy called upon the people of the state to display the same spirit they had shown during the assembly elections to bring the Congress to power. “The vibrant Telangana model will soon overtake the Gujarat model,” he said.
The BJP had cheated the people of the country by making false promises like 20 crore jobs and housing for every poor family, but failed to implement any of them, Reddy said. “Instead, the BJP is creating a north-south divide for coming to power for the third time,” he alleged and appealed to the people to oust the BJP at the Centre, as they had done with the BRS in Telangana.
