Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched Congress campaign in Madhya Pradesh for the upcoming assembly elections with a promise of Rs 1,500 per month, domestic gas cylinder at Rs 500 to women, loan waiver for farmers, free electricity to the poor and restoration of the Old Pension Scheme.

Calling upon the people of Madhya Pradesh to vote the Congress to power in the year-end assembly polls, Ms Gandhi officially sounded the poll bugle on Monday for the grand old party while addressing a huge rally at the Shaheed Smaarak ground at Jabalpur in MP.

Earlier, she paid obeisance to Maa Narmada at the Narmada riverside at Gwaari Ghat in the city.

The Congress leader launched her party’s ‘Naari Samman Yojana’ that promises Rs 1,500 per month to unmarried and married women in the age group of 18 to 63. The scheme was launched by the Congress in Himachal Pradesh after coming to power. The party has been claiming that the ‘Laadli Behna Yojana’ of MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan launched on 10 June, in which women are getting Rs 1000 per month, is a replication of Priyanka Gandhi’s idea.

At today’s rally, Priyanka Gandhi also guaranteed that the Congress would provide domestic LPG cylinder at the rate of Rs 500.

She said electricity up to 100 units would be free and up to 200 units would be charged at half the rate.

Ms Gandhi also promised that the Congress would reinitiate the farm loan waiver scheme for the farmers of MP, as it had done after coming to power in 2018.

The Congress leader assured restoration of the Old Pension Scheme for the government employees of MP.

Attacking the ruling BJP on several fronts, Gandhi alleged that the list of scams under the BJP dispensation in the state was much longer than the number of insults uttered by PM Narendra Modi for the Congress. She said the BJP in MP is involved in as many as 225 scams in 220 months of its rule.

“The BJP has not even spared gods,” she alleged, referring to the recent episode of six Saptarishi statues tumbling on the ground at the Mahakal Lok in the Mahakal Temple of Ujjain.

“CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has made 22,000 announcements but nothing has been done in reality,” Ms Gandhi said.

She claimed that the state BJP government had given only 21 government jobs in the past three years.

Alleging that the BJP has “exploited and used” the people of the state, Priyanka urged the people to see the truth and cast their votes for their and the state’s future.

“We are here for the country and for you and we will work for you with full devotion and love,” Priyanka Gandhi asserted.

The Mahakaushal region of MP that comprises the districts of Jabalpur, Chhindwara, Katni, Seoni, Narsinghpur, Mandla, Dindori and Balaghat is considered crucial politically with 38 assembly seats of the total 230 seats of the state.

In the 2018 polls, the Congress succeeded in bagging 24 seats in the region and went on to form the government. The BJP managed to win only 13 seats while one went to an independent candidate, supporting the Congress.

In the 2013 assembly, though the BJP formed the state government, the equation between the two parties was just reverse. The saffron party had won 24 seats while the Congress managed only 13 with one again going to an independent.

Both the parties are again focusing on this region in a major way.

CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan initiated the transfer of Rs 1000 each per month to women under his ambitious ‘Laadli Behna Yojana’ from Jabalpur on 10 June.

Today, Priyanka Gandhi too launched the Congress party’s campaign from Jabalpur and launched the party’s ‘Naari Samman Yojana’, guaranteeing Rs 1500 each per month to women, along with other promises.

The State Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh would be held most likely in November this year.