'Take it from Congress': Karnataka villagers refuse to pay power bill, BJP IT head warns of 'chaos' amid CM tussle

Villagers in Karnataka's Chitradurga are refusing to pay electricity bills as the Congress has promised free power in its manifesto, BJP's IT Cell head Amit Malviya said on Monday. Malviya shared a video and said people were refusing to pay the power bill and exhorting others also not to do so. "They tell the bill collector that Congress had promised them free electricity, as soon as they came to power...Go take it from them (Congress), they say...," the BJP leader said, adding that if the Congress doesn't announce a chief minister soon, there will be chaos all around. Congress is yet to announce the next chief minister of Karnataka as a tussle is on between former CM Siddaramiah and state party chief DK Shivakumar.

Congress has promised 200 units of free electricity in Karnataka. After Congress registered a landslide victory in the assembly election, party chief president Mallikarjun Kharge assured the people that the grand old party will fulfill all the five promises made in the party's manifesto. "People have given us a record number of votes. We will implement all 5 promises that we made to the public in our manifesto after we form our cabinet," Kharge said on Sunday.

During campaigning for the assembly elections, Congress gave five guarantees – Gruha Jyothi (200 units of free electricity), Gruha Lakshmi (Rs 2,000 to every woman), Anna Bhagya (10 kgs of rice to BPL families), Yuva Nidhi (Rs 3,000 to unemployed graduates), and Shakti. 

Earlier in the day, Malviya said the Congress must decide on its chief minister candidate soon since people were waiting for them to fulfill their 5 guarantees, "which will cost the exchequer Rs 51,150 crore (doesn't include free bus passes promised) and is 21.6 per cent (will be higher after accounting for free bus passes) of Karnataka’s total budget".

Malviya said at the moment, Karnataka's total receipt was Rs 2.26 lakh crore and expenditure Rs 2.87 lakh crore. "With the 5 guarantees, the fiscal deficit will widen to 1.14 lakh crore or 4.8 per cent of the GSDP (up from Rs 60,582 crore or 2.6 per cent of GSDP right now)," he said, adding that none of it matters because this will have to be approved in the first cabinet meeting. "The State's finances be damned."

Malviya said that one hopes Congress doesn't do a Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh or a Himachal in Karnataka "and go back on its words, which won't be surprising".

After winning a massive mandate in the southern state, former party chief Rahul Gandhi said the Congress would fulfill 5 guarantees on the first day and in the first cabinet meeting itself. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi too said the party would work diligently to implement the guarantees given to the people of Karnataka.