All India Congress Committee President Rahul Gandhi released the manifesto of the party for the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, in the coastal city of Mangaluru, on Friday, 27 April.
Launching the manifesto, Gandhi said that it wasn’t written by a few people in a room, but was devised after going to every district, block, community and region of the state. “This is the philosophical difference. The prime minister wants to tell the people of the country his ‘Mann ki Baat’, but this manifesto is the mann ki baat of the people of Karnataka”, he said.
He added that unlike the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto will be dictated by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, speaking at the event, said each year before preparing the state budget, he went back to his party’s 2013 manifesto. He also asserted that there is no anti-incumbency in the state as the party has fulfilled the promises it made.
The manifesto has listed more than 30 areas where it’s Namma Karnataka First. The state is the top job creating state in India, and we have received the maximum investments. We will continue in our efforts to build a ‘Nava Karnataka’.Siddaramaiah, Karnataka CM
The Gandhi scion too said that the party has “delivered its promises”, and it again pledges to fulfill the promises made in the new manifesto. He invoked the philosopher Basavanna’s mantra “nudi dante nade” (do as you say), and added that the belief in the poet’s philosophy has helped the Congress in the state.
The Congress president added that the BJP neither believed in the “culture of Karnataka”, nor did they respect the ideals of Basavanna.
“They might go and put mala on his statue. They might fold hands in front of him, but they would not say and do what he believed”, Gandhi said.
Calling the manifesto an ‘epic poem’ of development, Manifesto Drafting Committee Chairman M Veerappa Moily said, “It is for the first time, the president of the AICC, President Rahul Gandhi is launching the manifesto.
Gandhi launching the manifesto is sign that the Congress is not only certain of winning in Karnataka with a majority but also in the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha election”.
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