Karnataka Election 2023: Congress Announces Free Travel For Women In Public Transport Buses

Karnataka Election 2023: Earlier, Congress had announced four ‘guarantees’ — 200 units of free power to all households under Gruha Jyoti and Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family under Gruha Lakshmi among others.

Karnataka Election 2023: Ahead of the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka, Congress on Thursday announced the fifth poll ‘guarantee’ with party leader Rahul Gandhi promising free travel for women in public transport buses, if the party is voted to power in the state.

The Congress made the announcement during Rahul Gandhi’s election campaign in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. Rahul Gandhi during the campaign slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for saying that the Congress would not fulfil its guarantees.

“Narendra Modi says Congress party will not fulfil its guarantees. We have given you (people) four guarantees and they will be implemented on the first day, in the first cabinet meeting. Modi ji, you said four guarantees will not be fulfilled, I’m adding more to it. We will not fulfil four guarantees on the first day, but will fulfil five,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Free Travel For Women In Public Transport Buses

He addressed a public rally and said, “We will add another guarantee to four existing guarantees. It will be for women. Modi ji, listen carefully. As soon as Congress comes to power, on the very first day the fifth guarantee will also be implemented — women across Karnataka will travel free in public transport buses.”

“Your (BJP) people looted money from Karnataka’s women with 40 per cent commission, it is your work. While our work is to give Karnataka’s women the state’s money. So immediately after winning the election, whenever you meet a woman in buses, they would not be paying a single rupee to travel in buses,” he added.

Earlier, Congress announced four ‘guarantees’ — 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), and Rs 3,000 every month for graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), on coming to power in the state.

List of Other Poll Promises

• Women across Karnataka will travel free in public transport buses.
• 200 units of free power to all households under Gruha Jyoti.
• Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to woman head of every family under Gruha Lakshmi.
• 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household under Anna Bhagya.
• Rs 3,000 every month for graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years under Yuva Nidhi.

Rahul Gandhi asked the voters to limit the BJP to 40 seats in the state, as they were a party that ran a “40 percent commission government”.

Rahul alleged that the BJP had made “stealing” a habit and were betraying all sections of people including the youth, farmers and fishermen. “The BJP could not provide employment to the youth as promised. Inflation increased under the BJP rule and several small-scale industries were closed during the regime,” he said.

Rahul added that a decision on all the promises in the Congress guarantee card would be made at the first cabinet meeting of the next government and added that the Narendra Modi government had not kept any of its promises including providing two crore jobs for the youth in a year and Rs 15 lakh to every household by rooting out corruption.

The fifth poll promise from the Congress, interestingly, came on a day, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing Karnataka BJP workers virtually made a strong pitch for ending “revdi culture” (culture of distributing freebies).