The Congress will announce a loan waiver for the poor and farmers in the State if voted to power, Haryana party unit chief Kumari Selja has said.
In an interview, she said the Congress would not announce its chief ministerial candidate ahead of the election, and the party high command would decide after the polls.
The State Congress chief said the loan waiver promise would be part of the manifesto for the October 21 Haryana Assembly election. The manifesto committee has submitted its report and final touches were being given to it, she said.
“When our government comes to power, we will waive loans of the poor, especially people who take small loans. We are also going to write off the loans of farmers who are being pushed to a corner and are suffering under the BJP government,” she said.
The Haryana Congress chief said the loan waiver would be implemented within days of assuming power as has been done in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
“We will carry out our promises within days and weeks of coming to power. We will give timelines. We will see to it that people see the difference between us and others who only make tall claims and believe in mere publicity and headline management,” she said.
Ms. Selja, who took the reins of the Haryana Congress from Ashok Tanwar, said the Congress believed in fulfilling its poll promises “unlike the BJP”, which only used these to “mislead” the voters. “The dilution of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir is another tool the BJP is using to fool people,” she said.
Asked to comment on Tanwar’s resignation and his allegations on the Congress being the anti-thesis of democracy, Ms. Selja said, “The Congress has seen such rebellions in the past and has always come out stronger due to its inherent strengths. The Congress has the resilience to take on these things.”
She refrained from making comments on her predecessor, and said the party had appealed to everyone to work together.
“Ashok Tanwar was named a star campaigner for Haryana. Now, he has chosen to resign. That is his decision. But we must all remember one thing. Organisations are bigger than people,” Ms. Selja said.