A BJP lawmaker in Karnataka who is among those said to be unhappy in the party has set tongues wagging by chairing a meeting in his constituency about a flagship welfare programme of the Congress government.

Former minister S.T. Somashekar, one of the 14 Congress lawmakers who had defected to the BJP in 2019, triggering the collapse of the JDS-Congress coalition government, on Monday attended the meeting in Yeshwanthpur constituency in the city on the implementation of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme.

One of the five pre-poll guarantees made by the Congress, Gruha Lakshmi is set to be launched on Wednesday. The scheme offers Rs 2,000 per month to all women heads of families in the state.

He went on to justify his chairing the Gruha Lakshmi meeting with local authorities and citizens’ representatives in Yeshwanthpur constituency. “I have my responsibilities as an MLA, irrespective of the party in power. It is an MLA’s duty to ensure proper implementation of welfare programmes,” he told reporters, in a stand that is diametrically opposite of the BJP, which has trashed the five guarantees.

Of the five guarantees, the state government has already rolled out Gruha Jyothi, which provides 200 units of free electricity each month, free bus rides for women across the state under the Shakti scheme, and 10kg of free rice under the Anna Bhagya scheme. As the Centre refused to allot the additional quality of rice for the project, the state government has started paying the beneficiaries who hold either BPL or Antyodaya ration cards at the rate of Rs 34 per kg.