Bangalore: Subsidised scooters, free postgraduate education, free sanitary pads and zero tolerance on sexual harassment are among promises the Congress has made to women, hoping to ride their support to victory in Karnataka.

Rahul Gandhi released the party's Assembly poll manifesto in Mangalore on Friday, offering "gender-just" budgets if the Congress was voted back to power in the May 12 elections.

"This is the voice of the people of Karnataka and not just a manifesto made by three or four people sitting in a closed room," Rahul said.

He said the manifesto committee, headed by former chief minister Veerappa Moily, had travelled to "every single place, every block, every area of this state" to learn about the people's needs and aspirations.

"That is the difference between the Congress and the BJP. The Prime Minister likes to tell the people his Mann Ki Baat, but this manifesto contains the mann ki baat of the people," Rahul said.

The Congress has promised subsidised scooters for women employed by the government and the panchayats. The 50 per cent subsidy, up to a maximum of Rs 30,000, targets women earning annual salaries of Rs 2.5 lakh or less.

While girls already receive free education in government schools and undergraduate colleges, the manifesto has promised to expand the benefit to the postgraduate level.

All students at government colleges and polytechnic institutions have been promised free sanitary pads, with the public distribution system harnessed to distribute them to women living below the poverty line.

Vending machines for subsidised sanitary pads will be installed at all educational institutions and public toilets, and all state taxes on sanitary pads will be abolished, the document says.

All establishments will be forced to implement the government's policies against sexual harassment, and fast-track courts will be set up to try sexual harassment and assault cases.

A Congress government will provide free drivers' training to non-matriculate women and provide them with subsidised auto-rickshaws and cars to make public transport safer and more comfortable for women.

Among the other offers are entrepreneurial programmes, 5,000 Stree Shakti Micro Enterprises and hostels for women.

The manifesto bears the stamp of chief minister P.C. Siddaramaiah, who is from the backward Kuruba (shepherd) caste.

It says a Congress government will create an Other Backward Classes Nigama to address the community's issues. Backward-class women will receive priority in government skill development programmes.

Along with a slew of promises to the OBCs, a key vote bank of the Congress, the manifesto also announces education and housing benefits for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

Siddaramaiah said his government had kept "95 per cent" of the promises it had made in the 2013 manifesto.

The BJP poured scorn on the Congress promises. "There is neither direction nor vision in the manifesto: they have merely appropriated central schemes," the party's minder for Karnataka, Prakash Javadekar, said.