5 Guarantees Will Be Fulfilled At Any Cost: New Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah In His First Press Conference

Hours after taking oath as Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah on Saturday addressed his first press conference where he reiterated that the five guarantees promised by the Congress will be fulfilled at "any cost."

"Five guarantees in the manifesto were promised and the order for the implementation of those five guarantees was given after the first cabinet meeting. All will be in force after next cabinet meeting which will be called within a week," Siddaramaiah said at the press meet after the first cabinet meeting.

He said that more details about the implementation of the programmes will be given later, but assured that it will be implemented at "any cost." Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar pointed out that the poll guarantees will not be given to all.

In the manifesto, Congress had promised 200 units of free electricity under the Gruha Jyothi scheme, 10 kg rice free of cost to every Below Poverty Line (BPL) family, a monthly cash assistance of Rs 2,000 under the Gruha Lakshmi scheme to every woman head of household, Rs 3,000 to unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 to unemployed diploma holders every month for two years under the Yuva Nidhi scheme and free travel for women in public buses in Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah has also criticised the previous BJP government for its poor financial management. "The government which was ruling before was useless, they couldn't get us the share of taxes properly. The Centre has to give us Rs 5,495 crore as per the Finance Commission recommendation. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka and it's because of her and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karnataka suffered losses."

He also said that the Karnataka Legislative Assembly session will be held between May 22-24. Senior Congress leader RV Deshpande will be the Pro-tem Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly for the session.

Congress emerged victorious in the recently-held Karnataka elections by winning 135 out of 224 seats. The BJP managed to bag 66 while the JDS was reduced to 19.