Five 'transformational' promises included in Cong manifesto: Moily

The Congress party election manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections would be submitted to the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) and all the promises made by the Congress party in the 2013 manifesto would be fulfilled by January 15, 2018, KPCC election manifesto committee president M Veerappa Moily said.

Addressing reporters before attending the Congress leaders' meeting here on Saturday, Moily said that the process of preparing the manifesto is going on. "The manifesto will be finalised and submitted to the KPCC president before January 15. This time, five transformational promises which will transform the state, have been included in the manifesto. We (Congress) never face elections for votes, but for inclusive growth of the state," Moily said.

He said that the Congress government, led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, has fulfilled 159 promises of the 170 which were made during the Assembly elections in 2013. "Siddaramaiah has assured of fulfilling all the promises, except two that are related to policy matters, before January 15. As many as five crore people are the beneficiaries of the 2013 manifesto," Moily said.

"Karnataka has made remarkable achievements after the Congress government came to power. We stand first in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, investments, eradicating of malnutrition, among others. Karnataka tops the country in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Assembly constituency-wise development works taken up by the Siddaramaiah government will be uploaded on a website by January for public viewing, he said.

Moily said that even though the state government has waived off farmers' loan, the Union government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has failed to waived off loans in nationalised banks. "Modi did not respond to the request of the CM. The Union government has failed to release funds under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and material component funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act (MNREGA)," he said.

'Centre hijacked schemes'

In reply to a query, Moily said that the Union government hijacked the state government's schemes and projected them as its programmes. Speaking about the Gujarat election results, he said the BJP won the election only by emotionally blackmailing voters.

On the issue of a Dalit CM for the state, Moily said that, "At present, there is no issue as we are all one. The party will face the elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. All party leaders will unitedly tour the state from February," Moily said.

The election manifesto committee is gathering the opinion of party leaders and workers. Meetings at Mangaluru, Hubballi and Bengaluru have already been held, he informed.

MLA Vasu, committee member Pushpa Amarnath, Congress city president R Murthy, rural president B J Vijaykumar, and Manjula Manasa were present.