A test of warranty for guarantees as Congress woos beneficiaries

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress is once again trying to convert into votes thousands of beneficiaries covered under its flagship ‘guarantee’ schemes in the bypoll-bound Channapatna, Shiggaon and Sandur Assembly segments. 

The party has prepared exhaustive lists of ‘guarantee’ beneficiaries in each of the three segments, comprising names, phone numbers and addresses. This will be used for targeted door-to-door canvassing by party workers. 

CM Siddaramaiah, his deputy D K Shivakumar and other leaders engaged in the Congress’ bypoll campaigns have been telling voters about the five ‘guarantee’ schemes on which the government is spending over Rs 52,000 crore this fiscal. 

The bypolls will be the second test for the Congress’ ‘guarantee’ schemes.

The Congress depended heavily on the ‘guarantee’ schemes during the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. It is widely acknowledged now that the schemes, which helped Congress come to power in Assembly polls last year, did not yield expected results during the Lok Sabha contest. 

In Channapatna, Shivakumar, also the Karnataka Congress president, has deployed the BBMP guarantee implementation committee for a campaign around the flagship schemes in every gram panchayat. A similar task is given to party leaders in Shiggaon and Sandur.