MP bypolls: Congress farm loan waiver scheme was a lie, says BJP

Hours after the Madhya Pradesh Congress released its manifesto for bypolls to 28 Assembly seats in the state with its farm loan waiver scheme finding prominent mention, the ruling BJP called it a lie in which farmers were given "fake certificates".

The Congress' 'vachan patra' promised to carry forward the farm loan waiver scheme implemented under the previous Kamal Nath dispensation if the party wins enough seats in the bypoll to come back to power.

"The Congress' farm loan waiver scheme was a lie. The Kamal Nath government spoke of waiver to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore. The previous Congress government gave this amount as NPAs to banks. The Congress issued fake certificates of loan waiver to large number of farmers," MP BJP chief VD Sharma told reporters.

Also read: Madhya Pradesh bypolls: Congress manifesto promises help to Covid-19 victims' kin

Some farmers who paid back their loans were shown as beneficiaries of the waiver scheme by the Congress government, Sharma alleged.

He said the Congress' promises in the manifesto for the 2018 Assembly polls, like homes for people, allowance for unemployed youth, fuel price rebate etc, were never fulfilled in the 15 months Nath was CM.

The Congress government was busy preparing for the IIFA film award show at a time when the coronavirus outbreak had begun in the state, Sharma claimed.

Hitting back, MP Congress spokesperson Durgesh Sharma said the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, in the Assembly, had accepted that loans of 26.95 lakh farmers had been waived off during Congress rule.

Bypolls to 28 seats are scheduled for November 3. The counting of votes set to take place on November 10.

While the BJP needs to win nine of these seats to attain a simple majority of 116 in the 230-member house, the Congress needs to sweep all 28 to get back to power.