Congress launches ‘Guarantee Card’ campaign in Mysuru

AICC General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala launching the Congress party’s Guarantee card campaign in Mysuru on Tuesday. | Photo Credit: M.A. Sriram

All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Tuesday launched the party’s Guarantee Card campaign in Mysuru.

The card symbolises the party’s assurance to provide ₹2,000 every month to a woman of each household and 200 units of free power to all the houses in the State if the party comes to power.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Surjewala said the party will begin distributing the guarantee card to each house in all the constituencies of Mysuru district from Wednesday.

He referred to Minister for Higher Education Ashwath Narayan’s reported call to ‘finish’” former Chief Miniser Siddaramaiah recently and said BJP wants to ‘silence’ the voice of the poor, women and deprived sections of the society by ‘killing’ Congress leaders.

However, Mr. Surjewala said the Congress party cannot be finished. He said the party’s weapon was the welfare schemes and cited the assurances mentioned in the Guarantee Card to be among them.

When Mr. Ashwath Narayan gave a call for ‘finishing’ Mr. Siddaramaiah, he was speaking on behalf of BJP leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party’s national president J.P. Nadda and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, he said.

He accused BJP of practising the politics of hate. Referring to the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Surjewala said that it was “Godse then and it is Ashwath Narayan today”.

He said the BJP government in Karnataka was known across the country as the “40 per cent” government after the State Contractors’ Association President had written to the Prime Minister that the contractors were forced to cough up 40 per cent commission to get their bills cleared.

Mr. Surjewala also trained his guns on the JD(S) by claiming that the party was a “B” team of the BJP.

He said the party not only supported the ruling BJP government in Karnataka when it amended the Land Reforms Act, but also voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the elections to the post of President and Vice-President. Even though the Congress had fielded a candidate belonging to the minority community from Karnataka – Ms Margaret Alva – the JD(S) preferred to go with the BJP candidate, he said.

Recalling that the JD(S) had joined hands with the BJP earlier to form a government in the State, Mr Surjewala said the people of the State can stop such a development by voting in favour of the Congress party in the coming elections.

AICC Secretary Roji John, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Working President Saleem Ahmed, Mahila Congress chief Pushpa Amarnath, MLAs Yathindra Siddaramaiah and Tanveer Sait, besides Mysuru City and Mysuru district Congress Committee presidents R. Murthy and B.J. Vijaykumar respectively were also present on the occasion.