Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday promised a series of offerings for women if his party came to power in Odisha.

Interacting with women on the occasion of Women’s Day during his visit to Jeypore in Odisha’s Koraput district, he promised to get the women’s reservation Bill passed in Parliament and adopt a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ for atrocities against women.

He said all women would be provided free education of their choice, be it in engineering, medicine or any other field. He also promised financial assistance for the marriage of poor women and enhancement of widows’ pension to ₹2,000 a month. Assembly elections will be held in Odisha along with the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress chief promised to help women self-help groups through more bank loans and said the party will appoint special officers for women in every panchayat.

Rafale deal

Later in the day, addressing a public meeting at Jeypore, around 30 km from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited plant at Sunabeda, Mr. Gandhi came down sharply on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sidelining the public sector undertaking in the Rafale fighter jet deal. Inclusion of HAL in the deal would have provided employment opportunity to youths, but now it only benefited Anil Ambani, he alleged.

Mr. Gandhi promised loan waiver to farmers and enhancement of support price for paddy to ₹2,500 within 10 days if the Congress came to power in Odisha. He reiterated the promise of minimum income guarantee for the poor in the State.

He ended his speech with sarcasm aimed at Mr. Modi. “We want to provide a government that hears your ‘mann ki baat’ instead of making you hear ‘mann ki baat,’ he said.