Bengaluru: Perhaps for the first ever time in the poll history of Karnataka the electorate of the state is engrossed with issues from whatever sense you try to look at. Thanks to the announcement of the five guarantees by the Indian National Congress (INC) on the eve of the May 2023 Assembly elections and the subsequent implementation have given rise to discussions on the public platforms over the same.
Five guarantees lead to victory: According to a survey conducted by Eedina.com, an online Kannada portal the five guarantees of the Congress have been showered with an overwhelming drifting of votes in its favour in the last general elections. Interestingly now, the same five guarantees have transformed into a hot topic for discussion in the current Parliamentary verdict.
Freebies pave way for imbroglio: The populist welfare schemes like Gruha Jyothi extending 200 units of free electricity to every household, Gruha Lakshmi giving Rs 2,000/- to women head of BPL family, Anna Bhagya distributing 10 kilograms of free rice to each person of BPL family, Yuva Nidhi offering Rs 3,000/- and Rs 1,500/- monthly to unemployed graduates and diploma holders respectively. Nari Shakti entitles all women folks of the state to travel for free in the state government-owned public sector buses.
Public repent for voting the Congress: After much jubilation over the return of the grand old party to the corridors of power, which anyway was also an outcome of the anti-incumbency factor which has come to stay in every general election after 1978 and but for 1984 midterm polls, the same people have started to regret. They have been cursing themselves for electing the Congress in a hurry to register their anger against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the previous ruling party.
Commuting becomes a nightmare: Once the Nari Shakti scheme of free rides in the public sector buses was introduced the piquant situation as an after-effect became a nightmare for many travellers. Suddenly the buses became overcrowded with more than half of the seats occupied by women. Men who need to pay and travel are undergoing a horrible experience of not finding space to stand properly, forgetting to get seats to sit!
Pilgrimage centres become picnic places: The free travel scheme for women across the state transformed religious places into sought-after picnic spots. As a result, the free meals distribution system in most of the pilgrimages became a challenging task and eventually led to stopping the same after a certain point of time during day and night. It became inevitable as the turnout of arriving devotees never looked like ending at any point of time during day and night.
Farming activities go for a toss: Flooding of freebies played an adverse effect on the farm economy as suddenly there was a paucity of labourers for agrarian activities. Farmers wholly dependent upon sowing and reaping crops started experiencing difficult times to get their things done without the help of farm workers.
Benefits of development: People in general and voters in particular have started discussing the pros and cons of freebies and developmental activities. As mentioned earlier, such introspection among the voting community looks like having started for the first ever time. To what extent it will benefit or adversely affect the poll prospects of candidates belonging to rival parties needs to be waited and watched.
-Manohar Yadavatti
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