Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday helped some cultivators at Kathiya village near state capital Raipur in harvesting paddy and said the pro-farmer “model” of his party’s government in Chhattisgarh will be replicated across India. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Deputy CM T S Singh Deo accompanied Gandhi.
He also highlighted five schemes of the Congress government in poll-bound Chhattisgarh, including loan waiver and input subsidy, as best works in the interest of farmers.
“If farmers are happy then India is happy,” Gandhi later said in a post on X.
The Congress released pictures of Gandhi with farmers working in a paddy field and interacting with them.
After his visit, Gandhi posted the same pictures on his X handle and said, “If farmers are happy then India is happy! Five best works of Congress government for the farmers in Chhattisgarh, which made them the happiest in India. MSP on paddy Rs 2,640/quintal, Input subsidy of Rs 23,000 crore to 26 lakh farmers, Loan worth Rs 10,000 crore of 19 lakh farmers waived, electricity bill half, Rs 7,000/year to 5 lakh agricultural labourers. A model that we will replicate across India.”
All these schemes were launched by the Bhupesh Baghel government after the Congress came to power following the 2018 assembly elections.
Polling to the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly will be held in two phases on November 7 and 17.
Gandhi is on a two-day visit to poll-bound Chhattisgarh since Saturday.
Meanwhile, speaking at an election rally in Rajnandgaon, from where BJP leader and former CM Raman Singh will be contesting, Congress leader Rahul said, “Five years ago, in a similar meeting, Bhupesh Baghel, I and the senior leaders of the Congress party had made three-four promises to the people of Chhattisgarh. The biggest promise was that the loans of farmers would be waived off… We had also said that the farmers of Chhattisgarh would get Rs 2,500 per quintal for paddy…Today, we are providing Rs 2,640 per quintal to the farmers in the state…”
“As I said earlier, there are two types of government, one that works for farmers, poor and underprivileged ones, and the other works for billionaires. Bhupesh Baghel had said Modi Government has waived Rs 14 lakh crore of people like Adani,” said the Congress leader.
He also asserted that the Chhattisgarh government is going to provide free education from KG to post graduation.