Rahul Gandhi offers five guarantees to people of Kerala ahead of Assembly polls

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi set the tone for the upcoming Assembly elections battle in the State on Saturday by announcing five basic ‘welfare guarantees’ to the people of Kerala if the United Democratic Front (UDF) were to come to power.

Addressing a packed audience at the conclusion of the Puthuyuga Yatra in the Putharikandam Maidan in Thiruvananthapuram, a month-long rally across the State by Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan, Mr. Gandhi said that these welfare guarantees were aimed at giving a social security cover for the people of Kerala, especially the women and the youth.

Mr. Gandhi announced that monthly welfare pensions for the marginalised sections of society would be raised to ₹3,000.

The second major announcement was a health insurance scheme that will be named after former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, which will guarantee a medical insurance cover of up to ₹25 lakh for a family. The Oommen Chandy Health Insurance scheme will ensure that all marginalised families will have access to quality health care, without incurring huge expenses.

Mr. Gandhi announced free travel for women on buses operated by the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation across the State. In addition, college-going girls will be given a monthly financial assistance of ₹1,000. Mr. Gandhi promised that a dedicated department would be set up for the welfare of senior citizens.

Young entrepreneurs will be given an interest-free loan of up to ₹5 lakh so that they can set up new businesses and generate employment opportunities, he said.

Mr. Gandhi said that a key question that had been thrown at him during his interactions with the technocrats in the State earlier in the day was about politicians being the recipients of freebies. He said that it was time that instead of politicians, the poorest are given priority and adequate social security. This was the genesis of the welfare guarantees, which, he said would improve the lives of ordinary people, bring in inclusive development, new employment opportunities and social security, he said.

He questioned the kind of communist values that were being upheld by the present Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala. Mr. Gandhi said this was among the most corporatised government ever, working against the interests of ordinary workers, small and medium businesses, and farmers. This was a government which stood for big businessmen, Mr. Gandhi added.

He said the CPI(M) rule had led to massive unemployment in Kerala. Thousands of Keralites were being forced to leave the State in search of employment. It would be the priority of the UDF government to regenerate the employment scene in the State and to support all small and medium businesses so that jobs come back to Kerala, Mr. Gandhi said.

Mr. Gandhi also had a message for his own party workers. He said that the people of Kerala wanted the UDF to stand together. If the UDF could put up a joint front and assure the people of a strong coalition that works together, they would only be too eager to usher ‘Team UDF’ back to power, Mr. Gandhi said.

The top State Congress leadership, including AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal, AICC working committee member Ramesh Chennithala, KPCC president Sunny Joseph, former KPCC president K. Sudhakaran, all Congress MLAs and MPs and leaders of all UDF constituent parties were present on stage.