<p>Kickstarting his Gujarat state election campaign, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday made several poll promises, including a loan waiver of up to Rs 3 lakh for farmers, half the current price of LPG cylinders from Rs 1,000 to Rs 500, free electricity to farmers and up to 300 units of free power supply to consumers, creation of 3,000 English medium schools, among others.</p>.<p>Many of these “announcements” were similar to those made by Arvind Kejriwal when he campaigned for Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming state assembly elections. Addressing a gathering of booth-level workers’ “Parivartan Sankalp Sammelan” at Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad, Gandhi also attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over “corruption, inflation, poor implementation of GST”, among others.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-gujarat-congress-looks-for-a-repeat-of-2017-1142248.html" target="_blank">In Gujarat, Congress looks for a repeat of 2017</a></strong></p>.<p>While promising loan waiver for farmers, Gandhi said that BJP only built the tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, but it “worked against the ideas that Patel lived and died for such as the issue of farmers."</p>.<p>Gandhi said, “Sardar Patel would have waived off farmers’ loans, but the BJP government waives off (only) loans of businessmen.”</p>.<p>He also used large-scale drug seizures at Mundra port to bash the ruling party. “Gujarat has become a hub of narcotics drugs but there is no action. The lives of Gujarati youth are being ruined due to drugs. What is the reason that no police action is being taken? This is the Gujarat model that, despite drugs worth thousands of crores landing, no action is taken,” he said.</p>.<p>Promising free power supply to the voters, he said, “There is a nexus of two-three power companies due to which the power tariff in Gujarat is the most expensive in the country.” He further alleged that the “entire state has been handed over to the same four-five businessmen be it airport, port, infrastructure or telecom.”</p>.<p>Encouraging Congress party workers, Gandhi claimed that in 2017, the media had written off Congress from Gujarat polls, but the party almost defeated the ruling BJP. In the last Assembly election, the Congress won 77 seats out of 182, the party’s highest tally since 1995.</p>.<p>However, a lot has changed since then: the party suffered the frequent defection of some of its key leaders to the BJP, including Hardik Patel, the face of Patidar agitation in 2015. </p>
<p>Kickstarting his Gujarat state election campaign, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday made several poll promises, including a loan waiver of up to Rs 3 lakh for farmers, half the current price of LPG cylinders from Rs 1,000 to Rs 500, free electricity to farmers and up to 300 units of free power supply to consumers, creation of 3,000 English medium schools, among others.</p>.<p>Many of these “announcements” were similar to those made by Arvind Kejriwal when he campaigned for Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming state assembly elections. Addressing a gathering of booth-level workers’ “Parivartan Sankalp Sammelan” at Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad, Gandhi also attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party over “corruption, inflation, poor implementation of GST”, among others.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/in-gujarat-congress-looks-for-a-repeat-of-2017-1142248.html" target="_blank">In Gujarat, Congress looks for a repeat of 2017</a></strong></p>.<p>While promising loan waiver for farmers, Gandhi said that BJP only built the tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, but it “worked against the ideas that Patel lived and died for such as the issue of farmers."</p>.<p>Gandhi said, “Sardar Patel would have waived off farmers’ loans, but the BJP government waives off (only) loans of businessmen.”</p>.<p>He also used large-scale drug seizures at Mundra port to bash the ruling party. “Gujarat has become a hub of narcotics drugs but there is no action. The lives of Gujarati youth are being ruined due to drugs. What is the reason that no police action is being taken? This is the Gujarat model that, despite drugs worth thousands of crores landing, no action is taken,” he said.</p>.<p>Promising free power supply to the voters, he said, “There is a nexus of two-three power companies due to which the power tariff in Gujarat is the most expensive in the country.” He further alleged that the “entire state has been handed over to the same four-five businessmen be it airport, port, infrastructure or telecom.”</p>.<p>Encouraging Congress party workers, Gandhi claimed that in 2017, the media had written off Congress from Gujarat polls, but the party almost defeated the ruling BJP. In the last Assembly election, the Congress won 77 seats out of 182, the party’s highest tally since 1995.</p>.<p>However, a lot has changed since then: the party suffered the frequent defection of some of its key leaders to the BJP, including Hardik Patel, the face of Patidar agitation in 2015. </p>