Congress came to power for only its decision to stand by the poor: Rahul

Bengaluru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that the people of Karnataka defeated "hatred and money power of the BJP", while also ensuring that the five guarantees made by the party will be implemented within hours of the first Cabinet meeting.

He said that Congress came to power for only one reason and that is the party's decision to stand by the poor, the weak, the backward and the Dalit.

The former Congress president was speaking at the swearing-in ceremony of the new Congress government in the state, with Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar taking oath as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, besides other Cabinet members.

Speaking at the event at the Kanteerava Stadium here, Rahul thanked the people of the state for helping the party come to power.

"You fully supported the Congress. After Congress's victory, many things were written as to how it won this election, different analyses were done but I want to say that Congress won because we stood with the poor, Dalits, and Adivasis, backwards.

"We had the truth, poor people on our side. The BJP had money, power and everything but the people of Karnataka defeated all of it," the senior party leader said.

"And they (people) also defeated their (BJP) corruption. They also defeated their hatred. The way in which we said during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, we wiped the hatred and brought love. In the market of hatred, we have opened shops of love."

"Nafrat ko mitaya, Mohabbat jeeti (we brought in love, wiped out hatred)."

Rahul Gandhi also ensured the people to fulfil the five guarantees announced by the party.

Assuring people that the grand-old-party does not make false promises, he said, "I told you we don't make false promises. The first Cabinet meeting will take place in an hour or two. All these five promises will be passed. We walk the talk. The government is committed to the welfare of the middle-class. We will give you a clean, corruption-free government."

The Congress has made five guarantees for Karnataka during the elections which includes 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).

The Congress won 135 seats in the Assembly polls, while the BJP was reduced to 66 and the JD(S) could only manage to win 19.

AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yachury, CPI General Secretary D. Raja, NCP veteran Sharad Pawar were among the prominent politicians in attendance.

Tamil superstar Kamal Hassan, Kannada super star Shivaraj Kumar, popular actor Duniya Vijay, actress-turned-politician Ramya, actress Nishvika Naidu, senior actress turned politician Umashree and film director, producer V. Rajendra Singh Babu attended the event.