Eight Congress MLAs took oath as ministers in the Karnataka cabinet today. (file)
Bengaluru (Karnataka):
Hitting out at the Congress government’s decisions during the first cabinet meeting, former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said there was a huge gap between the ruling party’s announcements and poll promises.
“There is a huge difference between the promises made by the Congress government and the announcements made by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after the first cabinet. People had expected a lot of announcements and immediate implementation. Some women started traveling free in buses.” Today’s announcements have disappointed people,” Mr Bommai told ANI after addressing a press conference here.
Earlier in the day, the newly elected Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah said that orders have been issued in the first cabinet meeting to implement the five guarantees that the party had promised before the elections.
The five ‘main’ guarantees are 200 units of free electricity to all households (griha jyoti); Monthly assistance of Rs 2,000 to the female head of each household (Griha Lakshmi); 10 kg rice free to each member of BPL family (Anna Bhagya); Rs 3,000 per month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the 18-25 age group) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Uthik Prayan).
Addressing a press conference after the first cabinet meeting at Vidhana Soudha here, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “Five guarantees were promised in the manifesto and the implementation of those five guarantees was ordered after the first cabinet meeting.” All will be fulfilled.” Will come into effect after the next cabinet meeting which will be called within a week.”
The session of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly is to be held on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week.
Also, hours after being sworn in as Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah attacked the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government, saying that the government that ruled earlier was a waste.
“The government that was ruling earlier was useless. They could not give us our share of taxes properly. The Center has to give us Rs 5,495 crore as recommended by the Finance Commission.”
Earlier in the day, eight Congress MLAs took oath as ministers in the Karnataka cabinet during a swearing-in ceremony in Bengaluru.
The eight MLAs include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge, party MLAs G Parameshwara and MB Patil.
Other MLAs who took oath include KH Muniyappa, KJ George, Satish Jarkiholi, Ramalinga Reddy and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan.
Top leaders of the Congress party, including Gandhi family members Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, along with party national president Mallikarjun Kharge were present on the occasion.
Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states including Himachal Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel attended the event.
The Congress won 135 seats in the elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly on 10 May, leaving the ruling BJP with 66, while the Janata Dal (Secular) secured 19 in the results declared on 13 May.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)