Is ‘minimum income for poor’ like fake promise of Gareebi Hatao? Mayawati asks Rahul Gandhi

The BSP leader in a sneering remark advised Gandhi to first implement the welfare schemes which were earlier promised relating to poverty alleviation and welfare of people in Congress-ruled states in Rajasthan, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh for people to have faith that it can be also executed at national level.

The Congress president on Monday announced at a rally in Chhattisgarh that his party would ensure a minimum basic income for the country’s poor if voted to power at the Centre during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“The promise of Congress just before the Lok Sabha elections of guaranteeing minimum income has led to surprise and created doubts among countrymen,” BSP president Mayawati said in a party release issued here. She also said that both the parties have failed to fulfil their election promises and have proved to be mere eyewash.

People have tested both the Congress and BJP in the past 72 years and therefore it is the appeal of the BSP that they believe the party which works more than making tall clams and promises, she said.

Rahul had reiterated his promise in a tweet. “We cannot build a new India while millions of our brothers & sisters suffer the scourge of poverty. If voted to power in 2019, the Congress is committed to a Minimum Income Guarantee for every poor person, to help eradicate poverty & hunger. This is our vision & our promise,” he said.

Meanwhile, the BJP has called the Congress president’s claim of ensuring minimum income guarantee if his party was voted to power was like “hundreds of other announcements” of the opposition party that were not meant to be implemented and asserted that people had seen through the opposition party’s games.

“The people of India know the reality of the Congress and have seen through its games,” Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, following Gandhi’s announcement at a public meeting in Chhattisgarh.