Rahul Gandhi Woos Farmers in Rajasthan, Promises Increased MSP in Separate Kisan Budget

New Delhi: Adding to the Congress manifesto’s promise of holding a separate ‘kisan budget’ for farmers if elected to power in the Lok Sabha elections, party president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the budget would also include the year's increased minimum support price (MSP) for produce.

At a rally in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, Gandhi said, “Usually, there is one budget. After 2019, there will be two. A national budget and a ‘kisan’ budget. And in that budget, farmers will be told how much the MSP will be increased that year."

Gandhi also said the farmers' budget would inform farmers of their compensation, bonus and details of new food processing and storage facilities in their respective districts. “At the beginning of the year, the government will tell you how much money it is allocating for farmers," he said.

Gandhi, accompanied by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Deputy Chief Minister and state unit president Sachin Pilot, and Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Bharatpur, Abhijit Kumat Jatav, furthered his farmers' pitch in the rally and said the party had fulfilled its promise of loan waiver in the state after winning the Assembly elections last year.

In his appeal, Gandhi also reiterated the manifesto promise over farmer loan defaulters.

"After 2019, no farmer will be put in jail for defaulting on a loan," he said. "Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya, Anil Ambani, Lalit Modi, they all took loans and ran off. They did not go to jail, but an honest farmer who takes a loan of Rs 20,000 and fails to repay due to some misfortune, maybe bad weather, he is put in jail."

Gandhi also spoke about the party’s minimum income guarantee scheme — NYAY — and said it would jumpstart the economy and rejuvenate shops and factories that were forced shut by demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) implemented under the Modi government.

"Modi put crores of rupees in the bank accounts of 15 people; I want to put money in the accounts of five crore families," he added.

Bharatpur goes to polls on May 6 – the Congress party’s Abhijit Jatav is up against the BJP's Ranjeeta Koli. In the Assembly elections last year, the Congress had swept six out of the eight Assembly segments in Bharatpur, with the BJP drawing a blank.