Promises made in polls should be kept, and as soon as possible. That is the message that some Karnataka residents are sending the Congress. People are refusing to pay their electric bills, and women want free bus rides, because of this.
In an astounding victory in the May election, the Congress took over as the state's government in Karnataka. The Congress benefited from the party's outstanding campaign, in which it emphasized the alleged corruption in the BJP government and waved a lot of free stuff at voters.
Voters are currently in the streets seeking revenge. The Congress promised people in Karnataka 200 units of free power each month as one of its manifesto commitments. While some people interpreted it to mean they were exempt from paying their electricity bills, others requested that their electricity meters be turned off.
Some villagers in Belagavi refused to pay their electrical bills. The residents went ahead and requested that the police freeze the reading on their power meter. Their rationale? The peasants claimed, "The Congress promised to give us free electricity."
In addition to the aforementioned occurrence, it was also reported that locals in the districts of Koppal, Kalaburagi, and Chitradurga refused to pay their electricity bills. They asserted that since Congress had promised to provide them with free electricity if their party won power, they were not required to pay their bills.
A man was detained in Koppal, however, when he assaulted a Gulbarga Electricity Supply Company Limited (GESCOM) employee after being asked to pay his Rs 9,000 power bill from the previous six months. After a video of the incident went popular on social media, the accused was detained.
On the bus between Maski and Sindhanur, the incident happened. The Congress made five "guarantees" before the elections and won the Karnataka Assembly elections with a resounding 135-seat victory. The Siddaramaiah-led administration gave in-principle approval last week to carry out its election pledges, which are expected to cost the exchequer nearly Rs 50,000 crore yearly. On May 20, Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar took office as chief minister and deputy chief minister, respectively.
