A day after BJP-ruled states of Assam and Gujarat waived off farm loans and electricity bills in rural areas respectively, Congress President Rahul Gandhi said his party has managed to wake them up from their “slumber” and insisted that he will rouse a “sleeping” Prime Minister Narendra Modi too.
“The Congress party has managed to wake the CMs of Assam and Gujarat from their deep slumber. PM is still asleep. We will wake him up too,” the Congress chief wrote on Twitter.
On Tuesday, Gandhi revived his attack on the Narendra Modi-led central government and made it clear that the farm loan waiver is going to be one of their main poll planks for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He said the Opposition would mount pressure on PM Modi and would not let him sleep until all farm loans have been waived.
In the recently-held assembly elections, Congress had vowed to waive off farmers’ loans in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh within 10 days of coming to power. In MP and Chhattisgarh, the Congress declared waivers on the first day of forming the governments.
On Tuesday, the BJP government in Assam announced the approval of Rs 600 crore farm loan waivers, which it said will benefit around eight lakh farmers of the state. Similarly, the party’s government in Gujarat announced a complete waiver of Rs 625 crore in unpaid electricity bills, under its one-time settlement scheme for over six lakh people living in rural parts of the state.
