Rajasthan polls: Congress addresses over 30 rallies in 20 days

New Delhi : The Congress, which is eyeing a comeback in Rajasthan, has addressed 32 public meetings in the desert state in the last 20 days with former party chief Rahul Gandhi addressing the maximum number of rallies (14) for the grand old party. The high-octane election campaigning for November 25 Rajasthan Assembly polls ending on Thursday.

The Congress, which is eyeing to break the three-decade old tradition of the alternate party government in the state, during the campaigning has gone all guns blazing.

According to party leaders, Rahul Gandhi, who is one of the main star campaigners of the party took out time from his busy schedule of campaigning from the other states of Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram and and addressed 14 public meetings in the state in the last 20 days.

Besides Rahul Gandhi, even Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too addressed nine public meetings each in the desert state, despite their busy schedules in other states. Kharge even released the party's manifesto two days ago in the state capital Jaipur and announced several promises for the people.

The Congress on Tuesday released its manifesto for the Rajasthan Assembly elections promising caste census, MSP law for farmers, Right to Housing Law, law for Old Pension Scheme (OPS) and reservation for minorities. Under its minority welfare measures, the Congress has mentioned in its manifesto that it will give reservation according to population. "After caste census, we will undertake to provide reservation as per their population," the party said.

The other key points of the manifesto, as released by Kharge, are -- MSP law for farmers as per the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee, caste census will be conducted, law to keep the OPS going on, the amount of Chiranjeevi insurance will be increased from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh.

The manifesto also promised four lakh youth will be given government jobs, 10 lakh youth will be given employment, a new cadre of government jobs will be created at the Panchayat level, gas cylinder is currently available for Rs 500, it will be reduced to Rs 400 for BPL, NFSA and Ujjawal beneficiaries, by bringing RTE law in the state, education up to 12th will be made free in private educational institutions also.

Polling for the 200-member Assembly is scheduled on November 25 and counting of votes will take place on December 3.