Congress to shower gifts on newly-weds

Hyderabad: The race for allurements is reaching its peak as the poll heat picks up. The Congress party, which wants to follow the Karnataka model and come to power in Telangana, is now coming up with another special offer for those who want to get married.

It proposes to give the newly-weds ten grams of gold, Rs 1 lakh cash and a gift box containing utensils. This will be part of Women’s declaration which would be announced by Priyanka Gandhi on the eve of the Bathukamma festival. Priyanka Gandhi is likely to visit Telangana during Bathukamma festivities which begin on October 14 and end on October 23.

The grand-old party hopes that this would help in garnering the votes of the young would-be brides and bridegrooms and claims that this would be more attractive than the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme being implemented by the BRS.

Under the Kalyana Lakshmi, the State Government gives Rs 1.06 lakh. Congress feels that their scheme would give benefit to the newly-weds to the tune of Rs 2 lakh.

In its attempt to woo the women voters, it had already announced free bus travel, double the DWACRA loan amount for Self-Help Groups, and free medical check-up in corporate hospitals.Congress leadership feels that the schemes announced by them would help in winning the support of at least 70 percent of women voters.

The Manifesto Committee members said that the draft women declaration will be sent to AICC leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and AICC Chief Mallikarjuna Kharge for final approval.

The party high command will also make some suggestions to fine tune the declaration before the announcement. Leaders said that the promotion of entrepreneurs among the women community and the political opportunities at local level for them will also be included in the declaration.