Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee members on Wednesday demand 33 per cent of the party tickets for women. (PTI)

Bangalore, April 9: If you can’t control the price, give voters rice.

The Congress has promised 25kg of rice at Rs 2 a kilo to voters in Karnataka at a time the party is under attack from the Opposition over rising prices.

The ruling party at the Centre is also dangling before voters free colour television sets and low interest rates on farm loans. Karnataka goes to polls in three phases from May 10 and results will be announced on May 25.

The promises were made at a hurriedly called media conference by Prithviraj Chauhan, AICC general secretary and the Karnataka in-charge of the party, former chief minister S.M. Krishna and state Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.

Kharge said every below-poverty-line ration card-holder would get the cheap rice and the colour television set. Unemployed youths who have passed secondary school will get a stipend of Rs 1,200 for two years for undergoing training programmes to build skills.

The party said dues on government-built Ashraya homes would be waived for below-poverty-line ration card-holders if it came to power.

The high command has cleared a scheme under which farmers would be given loans at 3 per cent annual interest. The assistance will be extended to women’s self-help groups, potters, weavers, fishermen and shepherds.

The party has promised to extend the hugely successful Yeshaswini health insurance scheme to all BPL families. The health insurance scheme for farmers at Rs 5 per month was started by then chief minister S.M. Krishna, who has resigned as Maharashtra governor to plunge back into Karnataka politics.

Krishna assured the voters that the Congress had the political will and ability to mobilise resources to implement the programmes announced in the manifesto. “Congress has the capacity to work out the resources,” he said.

The announcements were made as a sneak preview to the election manifesto that will be released on April 13, manifesto committee chairman C.K. Jaffer Sharief said.

“The manifesto will also have a special package for improving Bangalore’s infrastructure and slums,” Krishna said. During his tenure from 1999 to 2004, Krishna had dreamed of turning Bangalore into “a Singapore” and had involved a public-private partnership in plans to refurbish the city.

The announcement has fired up the Congress rank and file. “We are in a position to announce it and keep the promise as the UPA is ruling at the Centre,” a jubilant Congress leader said.

Karnataka has 45 lakh BPL card-holders, a figure the Centre feels is too high. With each family having at least six voters, it can be a rich harvest for the Congress if the rice ploy works.

Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N.T. Rama Rao had rode to power on a promise of rice at Rs 2 a kg. Two decades later, it was the turn of the DMK to promise cheap rice. DMK chief M. Karunanidhi later promised every household a colour television set, the distribution of which is still on in Tamil Nadu.

Moily clears air

M. Veerappa Moily, a former Karnataka chief minister and the current head of the Congress’s media department, today gave credit to Karunanidhi for ending the recent water dispute.

The statement is being seen as an apparent turnaround aimed at placating the DMK which was cut up with remarks attributed to Moily suggesting Sonia Gandhi’s intervention had made the difference.

Today, he said: “The decision to put the Hogenakkal project on hold is absolutely the decision of Dr Karunanidhi….”