#CongressWinsKarnataka And now the Plunder of Bengaluru begins
Congress party in its manifesto promised a lot of freebies garbed as welfare schemes to the voters of Karnataka.
NewsBharati 15-May-2023 11:59:52 AM
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As Karnataka results came in, it was apparent that the Congress party had swept the elections with the most seats by any party since 1989. Except for Coastal Karnataka, all the regions of Karnataka voted in favor of Congress. There was one more exception to this, although by a small margin of 16 BJP-12 Congress, in Bengaluru city or Bengaluru Urban area.
Congress party in its manifesto promised a lot of freebies garbed as welfare schemes to the voters of Karnataka. Now the Congress party has won the election and will have to deliver on those promises, not only because that is a moral thing to do as they promised it, but because there is another election coming in less than a year, ie. the Lok Sabha Election of 2024.
Bengaluru Overwhelmingly voted for Bharatiya Janata Party.
— Karthik Reddy 🇮🇳 (@bykarthikreddy) May 14, 2023
We didn't fall for doles.
We didn't fall for freebies.
We wanted metro ( BJP expanded it to 70kms. Work is in full swing towards airport and silk board)
We wanted Suburban Rail Project (BJP got approval.. work began on… pic.twitter.com/00OmBHiccD
The Congress party made 5 guarantees in their campaign:
- 200 Units of free electricity every month per household.
- Rs. 200 per month for every female head of the household.
- Free 10 Kg rice, per month to BPL families.
- Rs. 3000 per month for every unemployed graduate and Rs. 1500 for every unemployed diploma holder.
- Free bus travel for women across the state.
The total cost of all the guarantees that the Congress party has promised is up to 50 thousand crores. This will almost double Karnataka’s Fiscal deficit to 4.9% from 2.6%. In net terms, from 60,581 crore to 1,14,000 crore approximately.
The Congress’ five proposed guarantees in Karnataka may cost the exchequer over Rs 50,000 crore. Unless there is an increase in revenue receipts, these 5 guarantees may push the state’s fiscal deficit to 4.9% of GSDP from the 2.6% budgeted earlier. pic.twitter.com/fNfE67NYMO
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) May 14, 2023
Bengaluru City consists of roughly 16% of the state population and accounts for over 60% of the revenue. All the extra spending promised by Congress is non-capital spending, which is not for the new infrastructure or to improve the old one. All the spending is for the freebies that do not improve any infrastructure of the state let alone Bengaluru city. Yet, due to the fiscal situation of the state, Bengaluru will fund all the freebies promised by a party they did not vote for to give those freebies to other people.
This essentially means the Congress party will use Bengaluru money to get more and more votes from rural Karnataka to win power in the state to get more and more wealth out of the City of Bengaluru. This Urban plunder of India’s software capital can result in the Gosse that laid the Golden Egg.
Apoorva Sahasrabudhay
Apoorva Sahasrabudhay is a media graduate who writes about politics, international affairs, geopolitics, economics and history. He has a keen interest on tracking sociological data of various countries and societies. He is also interested in psephology. He is meanwhile also exploring his hand in culture and religion.