Victory of poor over crony capitalists: Rahul
A Congress worker celebrates party's win in the Karnataka Assembly elections in the backdrop of a portrait of senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, in Kolkata on Saturday
New Delhi: A campaign against corruption, guarantees of dole and consolidation of Muslim votes appear to have underpinned the Congress victory in Karnataka that was also aided by anti-incumbency against the BJP government.
The strength of the poor has defeated the power of crony capitalists and this will happen in all states, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday, stressing that his party raised people's issues and ran a positive campaign.
To what extent this victory will help in catapulting the grand-old party to emerge as a party to lead opposition coalition during 2024 Lok Sabha elections is still not clear. While opposition parties are happy over the defeat of the BJP, it is too early to say whether they would agree to come on one platform and allow Congress to lead them. BRS is unwilling for any such proposal and Mamata too has her own reservations.
Analysts say that Karnataka has a history of not voting for the same party for second consecutive term. The Congress party's all-out attack on the BJP government over corruption allegations with the "40 per cent commission sarkar" barb also helped them to get a landslide victory.
Reacting to the Congress victory, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Saturday hailed the party's performance in the Karnataka assembly polls as the victory of politics that unites the country.
Priyanka thanked the people of Karnataka for giving a historic mandate to the Congress party. “This is a victory of giving priority to the idea of Karnataka's progress. This is the victory of politics that unites the country," she said. The Congress party will work diligently to implement the guarantees given to the people of Karnataka, Priyanka added.
The guarantees include 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to woman heads of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10-kg of rice free to every member of BPL households (Anna Bhagya), Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youths and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25), free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti).