Congress copies AAP, to use 'Rajasthan model' for Gujarat polls manifesto

The Congress party in Gujarat announced on Wednesday that it will include several welfare schemes, run by the government in the neighbouring Rajasthan, as part of the party’s election manifesto for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Senior party leaders said that if Congress came to power in Gujarat, the party would extend the old pension scheme benefit to the people of Gujarat, along with the “health model” of Rajasthan, which they claimed was the “country’s best”.

“We are contesting to win the polls, and there are some misconceptions that Congress is not serious,” said Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, who was overseeing the party’s preparation as a senior election observer in Gujarat.

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He was announcing Congress’s plans for the Gujarat Assembly elections, which are likely to be held within the next three months. Gehlot also said that while the party was taking the public’s “opinions” to prepare an election manifesto, a couple of schemes of his own government would be included in the manifesto.

“First is the Chiranjivi health insurance scheme of our government, which is the best health scheme in the country or perhaps in the world. I have told Modiji and Amit Shah ji to adopt it, as their Ayushman Bharat scheme is insufficient. This scheme provides health cover of up to Rs10 lakh. Then, we are promising to extend the benefits of the old pension scheme, which has already been implemented in Rajasthan,” Gehlot said at a press conference in Ahmedabad.

Saying that he didn’t have any knowledge about his elevation to the post of party’s national president, Gehlot explained that the Congress would also include Rajasthan government’s Indira Gandhi Shahri Rojgar Yojna, a 100-day guaranteed employment scheme for urban population. Other inclusions in the party's Gujarat election manifesto would be the Indira Rasoi scheme of Rs 8 for a meal and English medium schools in the villages.

The Rajasthan chief minister also claimed that the “people of Gujarat are fed up with Bharatiya Janata Party’s 27 years of misrule.”

Party officials said that they will launch Congress’s campaign on September 5 with a public rally by former national party president Rahul Gandhi.

Although party leaders such as Gehlot, who also spearheaded the party campaign in 2017, claimed that the Congress was ready to fight the BJP with all “seriousness”, the party also suffered back-to-back resignations and other internal conflicts.

Since 2017, Congress lost over two dozen leaders to the BJP, including OBC leader Alpesh Thakor, and Patidar leader Hardik Patel.

Besides, the Congress also faced a tough challenge from the rising popularity of the Aam Aadmi Party. Its poll promises of providing 300 units of free electricity, improving education and health, monthly unemployment allowance, among other focus areas were said to have worried the ruling BJP as well as the Congress.