Congress boards ‘guarantee train’ to upset BJP applecart

On June 1, newspaper readers in Delhi and Rajasthan woke up to full-page advertisements of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. In the ad, a beaming Gehlot promised 100 units of free electricity to all households in the poll-bound desert state.

The ‘Gehlot guarantee’ had been announced just the previous night, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a spirited attack on the Congress for playing the ‘guarantee card’, a reference to its recent experiment in the Karnataka polls that paid off handsomely.

While Modi fired his salvos from Ajmer during the ‘Maha Sampark Abhiyan’, a massive outreach exercise to showcase his government’s accomplishments in the last nine years, the ad was Gehlot’s riposte; a pugnacious leader doubling down.

Also Read | Karnataka: Guarantees at cost of current schemes

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge chimed in on Modi’s warnings over the “new formula of false guarantees”: When they give something, it is not bankruptcy; when we do it by mobilising resources to help the poor, they ridicule it.

If televisions, laptops, mixer grinders and table fans were the flavour of the poll season earlier, guarantees are the latest weapons in the Opposition armour.

Sample this: apart from free power, Gehlot, over a period of time, has announced LPG cylinders for Rs 500, subsidised meals, enhanced health insurance and free sanitary napkins.

In Congress circles, the talk now is all about the Karnataka model: pause individual ambitions till voting day; take on the BJP on corruption; and reach out to a large section of voters with doles. In other words, weld populism with social justice in such a way that it upsets the BJP playbook.

Chairman of the Congress’ Research Department, Rajeev Gowda emphasised the importance of the five guarantees.

At the same time, he explained, the Congress came out with “micro” programmes targeted at specific sections like gig workers, safai karmacharis and apartment dwellers.

“We needed these ‘guarantees’ for the simple reason that the economic recovery after Covid-19 pandemic was very uneven,” he told DH. “A large section of people whom UPA had taken out of poverty were pushed back to poverty. It is important to alleviate their pain. This applies around the country.”

Also Read | Karnataka government to simplify Gruha Jyothi scheme, says minister

Karnataka’s finances are better and it could afford this scale but for other states, the Congress would have to tweak its promises accordingly, he said.

The Congress in Madhya Pradesh, another poll-bound state, has announced ‘Nari Samman Yojana’ under which women are promised Rs 1,000 a month; it has also promised Rs 500 subsidy on LPG cylinders and cheaper electricity and a return to OPS.

One can expect a similar template in Chhattisgarh and Telangana, two other states that are heading to polls.

A new approach

The Congress changed gears when it came to messaging with ‘NYAY’, an ambitious promise that guaranteed an annual income of Rs 72,000 for the poor in 2019. But ‘NYAY’ never happened as the Congress bit the dust.

Nevertheless, it was a sign that the party was looking at a new approach.

In September 2021, Rahul Gandhi said that reforms initiated by the Congress regime in 1991 had stopped working by 2012, and that India needed a “new approach”. “The Congress knows what to do,” said a confident Rahul.

By then, Modi had rustled up a potent formula to bait voters. Apart from nationalism and Hindutva, two staples of the saffron landscape, he had created a third and a new category of voters — ‘labharthis’ or beneficiaries. These were people who availed schemes such as ‘Ujjwala’, Jan Dhan Yojana and
Rs 6,000 yearly for farmers.

Modi may say that he detests freebies, but these brought him voters in droves (UP being an apt example).

The Congress was forced to think.

Then came the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The yatra, a senior leader told DH, prompted the Congress to recalibrate its economic philosophy. Rahul took on crony capitalism with a pointed attack on Adani, but the party was not sure whether it would suffice.

Rahul then added price rise, unemployment and other livelihood issues to his rhetoric, since inflation was a major pain-point for people.

While the yatra rolled on, state units were tasked to identify schemes and promises that they could design to attract voters.

The party went to Himachal Pradesh polls by promising to bring back the Old Pension Scheme, an issue that resonated with voters in the hill state. The BJP’s dilemma over OPS was identified as one of the reasons for its loss.

In Karnataka, the Congress hit the jackpot with five guarantees. But its implementation has run into some rough weather over riders. A senior Congress leader admitted the troubles over the promises, which, he said, were “a bit extravagant”.

The Congress and Opposition parties appear to have found a way out with populism and social justice. The million dollar question is: will it work in the 2024 elections?