The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Wednesday announced five guarantees ahead of Maharashtra assembly polls at a joint rally here including Mahalakshmi Yojana for women under which Rs 3,000 will be given per month to one woman in every family and free bus travel for women.
The rally was attended by the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) supremo Sharad Pawar, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Udhav Thackeray, Congress chief in Maharashtra Nana Patole, party leader Ramesh Chennithala and some other leaders of the alliance.
Rahul Gandhi announced Mahalakshmi Yojana for women. Under this scheme, Rs 3,000 will be given per month to one woman in every family. Besides, every woman will be entitled to free bus travel under the scheme.
The MVA promised to waive off all farmers’ agriculture loans up to Rs 3 lakhs. Besides, the alliance government will provide Rs 50,000 incentive for regular loan repayments.
The alliance also announced plans to carry out caste census and promised that it will work towards removing the 50 percent bar on reservations.
The MVA government will also provide health insurance of Rs 25 lakh to all families and essential medicines will be provided free from hospitals.
The fifth guarantee includes Rs 4,000 monthly assistance to the unemployed youth in the state.
Speaking on the occasion, the alliance leaders including Kharge, Pawar, Gandhi and Thackeray asserted that the MVA was a united and strong force, which will sweep the elections in Maharashtra.
They slammed the BJP for “stealing” the popular mandate through splits and urged people to teach the party a lesson.
They alleged that BJP was misusing probe agencies like CBI and ED to destabilise elected governments.
Rahul Gandhi said it was an ideological fight between the INDIA bloc on one side and the RSS-BJP on the other.
He claimed that BJP and RSS were “infiltrating” institutions.
“The fight is a fight of ideology. On one side is BJP, RSS and on the other side is INDIA Alliance. On one side is Ambedkar’s constitution of unity, equality, love and respect and on the other side, BJP people and RSS people want to destroy this constitution, they cannot say it openly. If they say it openly, they know the result, the whole country will stand against them…They put pressure on the Election Commission, use the CBI, ED, Income Tax department to topple the government. You must remember that the previous Maharashtra government, your government was removed by stealing and giving money,” he alleged
Kharge accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not fulfilling some of the promises he made in the past.
“We have delivered our promises in Karnataka, Telangana and other places where our governments are there but sometimes PM Modi makes fun of us. He says Congress people always give a guarantee but they do not fulfil it. PM Modi gave so many guarantees in 10 years, did he fulfil any guarantee? He gave a guarantee to provide Rs 15 lakhs to everyone, did you give it? Then he said he would give 2 crore jobs to all the youth, did he give it? We are promising to provide Rs 4,000 every month to every youth till they get a job. This is a promise of the INDIA alliance” he said.
“We made promises in Karnataka and we delivered it. Karnataka government has kept Rs 52,000 crores to fulfil the 5 guarantees. Out of that, 47% have been spent. Have you done anything like this? You call it Modi’s guarantee. Which guarantee did you fulfil?” he asked.
Kharge said Congress and MVA allies will deliver on their promises.
“I just want one guarantee from all of you that you will make our alliance win in the Maharashtra Assembly elections,” he said.
He said he has challenged PM Modi to come to Bengaluru and discuss how many guarantees given by his government in the last 10 years were fulfilled and how many guarantees given by the Congress-led government have been fulfilled.
“I challenged PM Modi to come to Bengaluru and discuss how many guarantees were fulfilled that you gave in the last 11 years and how many guarantees we fulfilled that were given by the UPA government.”
MVA leaders urged people to oust the Mahayuti government in Maharashtra.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi addressed Samvidhan Samman Sammelan in Nagpur emphasised the need of caste census, saying it will set a new paradigm of development in the country.
Gandhi said that come what may, he will ensure that the caste census is carried out in the country and the fifty percent bar on the reservations is removed.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha maintained that the caste census was important because 90 percent of the population of this country had practically no say in the power and owned no wealth, both of power and wealth were being controlled by a select few people.
He said that once the caste census is carried out, every Dalit, every OBC, every Adivasi, every member of the minority class, the poor from the general caste and the women will come to know how much resources they own and how much power they have.
Countering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charge that the Congress leader was trying to divide the country, Rahul Gandhi said, he only wanted to tell the 90 percent of the country’s people where they stood in terms of owning wealth or having control over power and resources.
At the same time, he disclosed that even the RSS/BJP had realised the importance of caste census and they were now brainstorming as to what position they should take on this issue.
Asserting his resolve to protect and defend the constitution, Gandhi said it represented thousands of years old values and the ‘thought’ of the country. He said, it may have been written after independence, but it represents the thoughts of great men like Buddha and Ashoka.
He alleged that RSS and the BJP were trying to attack the Constitution by “subverting” institutions.
Polling will be held for 288-seats in Maharashtra on November 20 and results will be declared on November 23.
The ruling Mahayuti partners – BJP, Shiv Sena and NCP – have also stepped up their campaign.
