Karnataka Congress Leaders Call For Reassessment Of State Guarantees Following Election Defeat

Karnataka Congress leaders are challenging the state government’s guarantees. Despite their significant victory in last year's Karnataka Assembly elections and their ambitious 'five guarantees' promises, the Congress failed to prevent the BJP from winning a substantial number of seats in the general elections. The BJP-led NDA secured 19 seats, while Congress managed only 9.

In response, Congress MLA JT Patil from Bagalkote publicly urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to reconsider the guarantees.

Patil expressed his frustration, saying, “At many places, guarantees haven't worked, so we will appeal to the Chief Minister to rethink the guarantees. On one side, there is no development, and those beneficiaries didn't vote. Then why continue?”

Other leaders echoed Patil's concerns, with three MLAs in total calling for a review of the guarantee scheme. They argue that the guarantees, which were central to their Assembly election campaign, did not translate into the expected support in the Lok Sabha polls.

Congress leader Lakshaman, who lost in the Lok Sabha elections, remarked, "BJP claimed that the guarantees were making people lazy. It seems people agreed. They didn’t favor the guarantees. I appeal to CM Siddaramaiah to re-evaluate the guarantees as people have voted against it."

Congress MLA Balakrishna commented, "We entered elections with a strategy that has now shown to be ineffective. Our opponents also said the guarantees didn’t help. Post-elections, we need to reconsider and explore other options, but that decision lies with our leadership."

The Karnataka Congress’s guarantees included the Shakti Scheme for free transport to women, including gender minorities and students; the Anna Bhagya Scheme for food grain distribution; the Gruha Jyothi Scheme for free electricity up to 200 units per month; the Gruha Lakshmi Scheme for financial assistance to women heads of families; and the Yuva Nidhi Scheme for allowances to unemployed graduates and diploma holders.

Despite these extensive promises aimed at tackling key issues like food security, electricity, transport, and unemployment, Congress was unable to gain voter support, leading to the BJP-led NDA winning the majority of the seats, limiting Congress to just nine out of 28 Lok Sabha seats.