'Collect from Congress': Karnataka villagers refuse to pay electricity bill after Rahul Gandhi's manifesto promise

A video of a group of villagers refusing to pay their electricity bill citing Congress' pre-poll promise to give 200 units for free has gone viral on social media.  While gearing up for the Karnataka polls, the grand old party highlighted its five 'guarantees' including the offer of 200 units of power a month to every household. During campaigning, Congress repeatedly said it would give a stamp of approval for these 'guarantees' in the maiden cabinet meeting on the first day of its assuming power in the State. "We won't pay," a villager was heard telling electricity bill collector Gopi in the purported video where people are seen sitting on a platform under a peepal tree. The bill collector then tells them, "You have to pay the bill this month. Let’s see what the government says," to which the villagers respond, "What can the government say?"

Villagers in Chitradurga refuse to pay electricity bill. Exhort others also not to pay! They tell the bill collector that Congress had promised them free electricity, as soon as they came to power… Go take it from them (Congress), they say…

If Congress doesn’t give a CM soon,… pic.twitter.com/FNgGtwdPHM

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) May 15, 2023

According to a video shared by BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya, villagers in Chitradurga refused to pay the electricity bills citing the promise. Malviya claimed that the villagers told the bill collector to collect the money from the Congress party since they promised to provide free electricity as soon as they come to power. Malviya also claimed villagers warned Congress about the 'chaos' that might ensue if the party does not choose a new Chief Minister soon. Free electricity to the people was one of the five guarantees that the Congress party mentioned in its manifesto ahead of the Karnataka elections. Reacting to Malviya's tweet, Congress' National Coordinator Sumit Dubey called on the Karnataka DGP and asked him to take it down from Twitter. "If Congress doesn’t give a CM soon, "there will be 'CHAOS' all around"… said by Amit Malviya.. This is simply 'INSTIGATING' the people from his social media handle (sic)," Dubey tweeted. The Congress party led by Kanakapura MLA DK Shivakumar gave five guarantees including free ration, free public transport rides and financial assistance to the unemployed. Here are the five guarantees which Rahul Gandhi promised to implement right after forming the government.