The Congress sought to bolster its electoral prospects in Uttarakhand on Wednesday by promising to cap the price of cooking gas at Rs 500 a cylinder, come what may.
Releasing the party manifesto in Dehradun, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi said: “We will cap the cylinder price at Rs 500. The state government will pay the differential amount.”
The Congress has flagged the savage increase in the cost of a cylinder from Rs 450 during the Manmohan Singh regime to Rs 918 under Narendra Modi government.
The party has launched a separate campaign jingle for this alluring promise. It goes like this: “Hans lo didi sun kar/Gas ka cylinder/paanch sau ke andar.” It further says: “Kiya Bhajpa ne nau sau ke upar/fir pahle jaisa hoga/paanch sau ke andar/hans lo didi sunkar”.
The subsidy for the cylinder will be credited to the account of a woman member of the household.
Instead of getting into secular-communal political tussle, the Congress campaign is sharply focused on basic issues such as price rise, unemployment and struggling small businesses hit by the pandemic.
Condemning the BJP leaders as “jumle-baaz,” senior Congress leaders are recalling the BJP’s pet slogan of 2014 parliamentary election, “Bahut hui manhgai ki maar/Abki baar Modi sarkar.”
The Congress is taking a public pledge, calling their manifesto “Pratigya Patra”, which also includes reservation of 40 per cent jobs for women in police. Though the party hasn’t reserved 40 per cent tickets for women in the election, Priyanka’s “ladki hun/lad sakti hun” slogan is resonating in the hill state. They are linking the cylinder promise also to the party’s commitment to women empowerment.
Priyanka said the people of Uttarakhand should trust the Congress keeping in mind the fulfilment of promises such as farm loan waiver in states like Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The Congress has also promised four lakh permanent jobs over the next five years, extension of healthcare facilities to every village, Rs 40,000 financial aid to five lakh poor people and free electricity up to 100 units in the first year and 200 units in the second year.
Addressing the gathering after releasing the manifesto, Priyanka highlighted the rising prices of essential commodities, which inflicted extreme suffering on the common man. “What is painful is that the BJP government did nothing; solved no problem.
They talk of double-engine government but the engine cannot work because petrol has crossed Rs 100. Every single promise was broken. Money squandered on advertisements only. Truth is that there is enough money. There are job vacancies but not being filled.”
She lamented that the BJP leaders never talked of real issues such as unemployment, education, public welfare and only tried to divert attention by raising extraneous matters. “The Prime Minister can buy planes worth Rs 16,000 crore. But no money for the farmers. No subsidy on petrol-diesel. They didn’t help the poor during lockdown. Oxygen couldn’t be supplied to the patients.”
