BJP copying Cong's guarantee schemes for election 'jumla', says Kharge

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday accused the BJP of copying his party's guarantee schemes and making similar announcements in poll-bound states as part of its election "jumla" (rhetoric).

Hitting out at the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he strongly defended the Karnataka Congress government's guarantee schemes, and said his party implements the promises made as it always works for the welfare of the people.

"I have responded to them in detail in Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Even now, I ask them to study our Karnataka (state) budget. About Rs 52,000 crore has been allocated for the five guarantee schemes in the budget, 47 per cent of which has already been spent... probably they have not seen the budget," Kharge claimed, while responding to a question on BJP leaders and Modi targeting state's guarantee schemes during their election campaign.

Without any proper budget (allocation), the BJP has now made several announcements, he said, adding, "taking clues from five guarantees that we announced in Karnataka, they made announcements in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat Rajasthan and other places...."  Speaking to reporters here, Kharge said the BJP is on a propaganda to bring a bad name to the Karnataka government to which no one should lend their ears.

"They have copied our (Congress) guarantees. We are at least implementing guarantee schemes promised. We had done it while in the Central government, we are doing it now in the states where we are in power."  The BJP and Modi have not fulfilled or implemented any of their guarantees, he said, referring to "announcements such as Rs 15 lakh to every bank account when black money repatriated from abroad", creating 2 crore jobs, hiking MSP on crops, bullet trains, among others.

"Everything is jumla. They speak things for the sake of elections, while Congress always works for the welfare of the people," he added.

Not willing to give any direct response to a question on the Waqf related controversy in Karnataka, the Congress chief said, "joint select committee is looking into it. I have no role in it, I can't speak....once the joint select committee report comes to the Parliament, we can speak on it."  Regarding doubts being expressed about the sanctity of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) ahead of Maharashtra polls, Kharge said, "I don't want to speak on it repeatedly. We have a team on EVMs including leaders like Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Many are working on it. Let's see.