New Delhi: The Congress top leadership including former chief Rahul Gandhi and incumbent Mallikarjun Kharge are likely to back Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's leadership and flag the political stability and fulfillment of all the poll promises.
The Karnataka government will turn two on May 20. To celebrate the occasion, the state unit has made preparations for a big show to be addressed by both the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party chief Kharge, who belongs to Karnataka.
"There is bound to be a comparison between what the BJP says and does. Before the 2023 (Karnataka) Assembly elections, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi had campaigned extensively across the state and dubbed our five elections guarantees as freebies. Two years hence, while our government has delivered on all the five promises, people in various BJP-ruled states are still awaiting the promises to be implemented. That is the difference between a party which only talks and the one which acts," All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary in charge of Karnataka Abhishek Dutt told ETV Bharat.
According to party insiders, while there has been general political stability in Karnataka, the state government had been at times rocked by reports related to differences between Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivkumar.
DK had played a role behind the Congress’ historic win in 2023 winning 135 out of 224 assembly seats. Shivkumar was keen to become the chief minister but the high command had sided with Siddaramaiah thinking he was more suitable for the top executive job. However, acknowledging his contribution and keeping in mind the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the high command had allowed Shiv Kumar to retain the twin posts of state unit chief and deputy chief minister at the same time.
Over the past months, Siddaramaiah had been dealing with legal issues related to an alleged land allotment case under the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) as well which at times worried the high command.
"The state unit is together and there is political stability in the state. The chief minister and his deputy are working as a team and they have delivered on all the election promises unlike the previous BJP government. The allowance for women and free rides for them in buses has actually contributed to the state economy. All the reports of differences between the CM and the state unit chief and a possible change of guard are media creation," senior Karnataka Congress leader Prakash Rathod told ETV Bharat.
Besides the election assurances, the state government was also focusing on the extremely poor sections, said Rathod. "The previous BJP government too had promised to give land titles to the poor but there were serious anomalies in their scheme. Our government went through the entire process again and corrected the revenue records. As a result, Rahul Gandhi will hand over the land titles to around one lakh extremely poor persons on May 20. This will allow them to get loans from banks and avail other government facilities," he said.
Rathod further said that on the lines of Telangana, the Karnataka government too would soon finalize its caste census and start giving benefits to the marginalized sections.
