Testing 12 months For Congress In Karnataka Amid Freebie Troubles, Scams: Will Siddaramaiah Govt Survive 2025? – News18
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Because the celebration completes half its time period, analysts really feel it’s vital that the Siddaramaiah authorities refocuses on delivering its guarantees and elevating revenues to make sure not solely this but additionally that different growth priorities are taken care of
CM Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar have defended Karnataka’s welfare mannequin. (File picture: PTI)
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah faces one of the difficult years of his four-decade-long political profession within the second-term authorities he’s main. The Congress might have come to energy with a thumping majority of 135 out of the full 224 MLAs with the promise to fulfil its 5 formidable assure schemes to the individuals of the state, but it surely now grapples with monetary strains, criticism over these welfare programmes, and controversies such because the Valmiki Company and Mysore City Growth Authority (MUDA) scams, amongst others.
The welfare schemes have offered the opposition BJP-JD(S) alliance a platform to sharpen its assault on the Congress authorities because the query looms whether or not the Siddaramaiah authorities will survive regardless of the freebie troubles.
Burden of assure schemes
The Congress authorities’s 5 flagship assure schemes—Shakti (free bus rides for ladies), Gruha Lakshmi (month-to-month assist of Rs 2,000 to ladies heads of households), Gruha Jyothi (free electrical energy as much as 200 models), Anna Bhagya (free rice), and Yuva Nidhi (unemployment allowance)—have been the cornerstone of its election marketing campaign. These guarantees helped the celebration safe a powerful victory. However is implementation now proving to be a double-edged sword?
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, whereas presenting his fifteenth Price range, introduced an outlay of Rs 3.71 lakh crore for the state this monetary 12 months and highlighted projections of Karnataka’s economic system increasing by 6.6% within the monetary 12 months 2024-25.
Collectively, these schemes devour practically one-sixth of the state’s Rs 3.71 lakh crore annual funds, amounting to roughly Rs 52,000 crore. This fiscal pressure has raised considerations about Karnataka’s financial well being. Critics, together with the Bharatiya Janata Get together and Janata Dal (Secular), argue that the state’s coffers are being drained, leaving little room for developmental tasks.
Critique of ensures
At one level, senior Congress MLA and Siddaramaiah’s financial adviser Basavaraj Rayareddy acknowledged the difficulty, stating, “The state must allocate Rs 60,000 crore yearly for these schemes, leaving no funds for growth tasks.” Although the minister was pulled up, this admission lent weight to opposition claims that the federal government’s welfare guarantees might be unsustainable.
Even Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s recommendation to celebration models to supply solely “doable” ensures has offered recent ammunition to the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi additionally criticised the Congress for what he referred to as “unreal guarantees”. Whereas Kharge dismissed Modi’s remarks as a “low-cost PR stunt”.
Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar defended the state’s welfare mannequin.
Shivakumar claimed Karnataka’s monetary well being was stronger than the Centre’s, although knowledge paints a extra advanced image.
Karnataka’s monetary stability
Insiders say that, below strain to fulfil the 5 ensures, the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka authorities roped in Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as a guide. The BCG has been tasked with arising with methods to spice up income and plug leakages in income collections. The 5 ensures, promised by the Congress throughout the meeting elections, price the exchequer Rs 36,000 crore in 2023-24.
The state is below pressure as each state tax revenues and funds from the Centre have dropped. The state’s tax income fell from 7.54% of GDP in 2021-22 to six.24% in 2023-24, in keeping with the state funds. Central grants additionally decreased considerably, from 1.22% to 0.55% throughout the identical interval.
One among its many recommendations is to monetise round 25,000 acres of land close to Bengaluru. The Karnataka authorities is mulling organising deliberate satellite tv for pc cities in and round Bengaluru, in addition to in Bidadi, Anekal, Hoskote, Devanahalli, and Doddaballapur.
The state has been making an attempt to enhance expenditure administration in departments like irrigation, power, public works, rural growth, and panchayati raj.
The state authorities has been hoping to lift a further Rs 5,000 crore per fiscal, in keeping with extra chief secretary (finance) LK Atheeq, who added that extra compliance in GST and property tax may even assist generate extra income.
One other Karnataka Congress MLA, HR Gaviyappa, additionally prompt that the ballot assure schemes have been placing a pressure on the federal government’s funds. He mentioned it was making it troublesome to approve housing for the homeless. Nevertheless, he later retracted his assertion after being pulled up by DK Shivakumar.
Shivakumar, who can be the state Congress president, clarified that not one of the 5 assure schemes can be stopped.
“We promised the individuals of the state that we might implement the ensures, and we are going to preserve that promise. No Congress MLA ought to query the assure schemes,” he added, stating that the celebration would take motion if anybody did.
Karnataka ensures for Telangana win?
Siddaramaiah mentioned the Congress’s victory in Telangana was because of the profitable implementation of assure schemes in Karnataka.
Siddaramaiah, who campaigned in Telangana alongside together with his deputy, Shivakumar, dismissed claims by then Telangana chief minister Okay Chandrashekar Rao and BJP leaders that Karnataka’s assure schemes weren’t being applied. He even invited Rao to Karnataka for a “actuality verify”.
“A 12 months in the past, nobody thought the Congress may win in Telangana. The Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Rahul Gandhi, energised our staff. The Karnataka victory, a well-planned marketing campaign, and the success of our assure schemes helped achieve the belief of voters in Telangana,” Siddaramaiah mentioned.
In September, the Telangana Congress introduced six ensures forward of the elections, hoping to copy the success of the celebration in Karnataka, the place it gained 135 out of 224 seats. The Congress in Telangana gained 64 out of the full 119 seats, whereas the Bharat Rashtra Samithi gained 39 seats, the BJP managed to win 8 seats, AIMIM bagged 7 seats, and one seat was gained by the Communist Get together of India.
The Congress made the identical 5 assure guarantees in Madhya Pradesh however misplaced the election, profitable solely 66 seats.
Centre-state tensions
Karnataka’s strained relationship with the Nationwide Democratic Alliance-led Centre has solely added to its troubles. Siddaramaiah has accused the central authorities of ignoring the state’s monetary wants, pointing to the rejection of a Rs 5,400 crore particular grant beneficial by the fifteenth Finance Fee. The chief minister even skipped the NITI Aayog Governing Council assembly, citing the Centre’s indifference in the direction of Karnataka’s considerations.
The BJP and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) have capitalised on these points to mount a concerted assault on the Congress authorities. Accusations of stalled growth and monetary mismanagement have dominated their political rhetoric.
When the Congress blamed the BJP within the Centre for denying the state monetary assist, union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected Karnataka’s claims of neglect, accusing the Congress of making a “toxic narrative” and failing to fulfil its ballot guarantees. The BJP has even revived the contentious thought of a “separate nation for southern India”, first floated by Shivakumar’s brother, as a political weapon.
2025 difficult 12 months for CM Siddaramaiah
Analysts consider that this has undoubtedly been a difficult 12 months for Siddaramaiah. On one hand, after the meeting election win, he was unable to get a major variety of seats within the Lok Sabha for the Congress, and the explanation behind the drubbing might be attributed to the work on their ensures as nicely.
“There’s sufficient empirical proof to point out that the way in which during which the individuals responded to the ensures in some components of the state was instrumental within the celebration profitable the variety of seats that they really ended up profitable. So not attaining the promise of getting a majority of seats, I believe, was the primary problem. However having the ability to stand up to a washout in opposition to a coalition I believe was what went of their favour,” observes political analyst Sandeep Shastri.
He added that after coming to energy, it has been extra downhill than uphill, particularly with the collection of alleged corruption scandals and scams rolling out.
“The Congress needed to be on the defensive on all these costs, and fairly often the chief minister and his deputy have been left to carry the infant and defend the federal government,” Shastri mentioned.
The analyst sees a political upside as nicely. Two elements, he says, have ensured that it was not all unfavorable for the Congress in Karnataka.
“The primary is the truth that the state BJP has been a divided home, and the infighting inside the state BJP has prevented it from being extra sharp in its criticism of the federal government. This labored to the ruling celebration’s benefit. Secondly, I believe the hat-trick within the by-elections was a shot of their arm, which was vital,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, because the celebration completes half its time period, he thinks it’s vital that the Siddaramaiah authorities refocuses on delivering its guarantees and elevating revenues to make sure not solely this but additionally that different growth priorities are taken care of.
“I consider 2025 will probably be essential when it comes to how a number of the instances involving the chief minister pan out, and whether or not he’ll have the ability to climate that storm will probably be a crucial issue to observe in 2025,” Shastri informed News18.
