The Madhya Pradesh Congress on Tuesday released its manifesto for the November 17 assembly polls, promising Rs 25 lakh health insurance, 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and an IPL cricket team of the state.

Party state unit chief Kamal Nath along with other leaders released the manifesto at Ravindra Bhavan here.

“We will provide a health insurance cover of Rs 25 lakh which will also have an accidental cover of Rs 10 lakh for all the people,” Nath said, adding that the party’s ‘Vardaan Health Insurance’ scheme’ will include all hospitals of the state and some in other states too.

As promised earlier, the Congress also announced ‘Naari Samman Nidhi’ of Rs 1,500 per month for women, domestic gas cylinder at Rs 500, free school education from classes 1 to 12 and implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS).

Further, the party pledged support for daughters’ weddings. It said it would start a new scheme for the marriage of girls and provide assistance of Rs 1.01 lakh.

It also promised to provide loans for women entrepreneurs, housing for rural homeless women, and free transportation on metropolitan bus services. The party promised that loans up to Rs 25 lakh would be provided to women for start-ups at 3 per cent interest rate.

The grand old party also intends to regularize anganwadi assistants and workers and create a new cadre of field health workers. Additionally, the ‘Meri Bitiya Rani Yojana’ is designed to support daughters from birth till their wedding.

The manifesto states that under the ‘Padho Padhao’ scheme, financial aid of Rs 500 would be given to children of government schools from classes 1 to 8, Rs 1,000 to students of classes 9 and 10, and Rs 1,500 per month to students of classes 11 and 12.

The Congress also reiterated its promise of waiving loans up to Rs 2 lakh of farmers. It said it would also pay unemployment allowance under the ‘Yuva Swabhimaan’ scheme ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 per month for two years.

Nath said the Congress government would buy paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal and wheat at Rs 2,600 per quintal. He said under the ‘Indira Griha Jyoti Yojana’, 100 units of electricity will be provided free and subsequent 200 units of electricity will be provided at half rate.

He said Madhya Pradesh will also field a cricket team in the Indian Premier League (IPL) if his party comes to power in the state.

The opposition Congress listed 59 promises in its 106-page manifesto, with assurances for all sections of the society, including farmers, women and government employees.

Election to the 230-member state assembly is scheduled on November 17 and counting of votes on December 3.