Upping the ante for the Lok Sabha polls scheduled later this year, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Monday said that if voted to power, his party will ensure a Minimum Income Guarantee to every poor person in India so that no one goes to sleep hungry. Gandhi made the announcement at the 'Kisaan Abhaar Sammelan' held in Chhattisgarh to express gratitude to people, particularly farmers, for voting the party to power in the state after a gap of 15 years. 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. — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 28, 2019 Gandhi prefaced his announcement by saying no country in the world has such a scheme and that the Congress has delivered on its previous poll promises, quoting revolutionary programmes such as MGNREGA and RTI among others. He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling BJP of trying to create two Indias - "one of the Rafale scam, Anil Ambani, Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Mehul Choksi and the other of the poor farmers". Gandhi also distributed symbolic loan waiver certificates to some of the beneficiary farmers. The Congress has waived loans for farmers from cooperative and state-run banks worth above Rs 6,100 crore after coming to power in the state. The Congress had registered a resounding victory in last year's state Assembly polls, winning 68 of the total 90 seats.
