FOR LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE

Rathyatras—that tried and tested vehicle of the BJP’s election campaigning—rolled out on March 1 in Karnataka where the party is in power.

- Ajay Sukumaran

Four custom-designed ‘election raths’ flagged off by central ministers from different corners of Karnataka will wind their way across the state to converge at a grand rally planned at the centrally-located town of Davanagere by the month-end. Despite the intractable problems that have dogged its four-year tenure and a seemingly re-energised Congress, the party is bringing out its big guns into the election battlefield, banking on a slew of welfare programmes and big-ticket projects to showcase its ‘double-engine’ government.

The welfare pitch was evident in chief minister Basavaraj Bommai’s February 17 state budget, where agriculture and women’s empowerment were the dominant themes—the CM upped the limit for zero-interest, short-term loans for farmers to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 3 lakh, and doled out Rs 500 a month for landless female farm workers under the ‘Gruhini Shakti’ programme. However, with the Congress already having promised a monthly allowance of Rs 2,000 for every woman who heads a family, Bommai later doubled this to Rs 1,000.