Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday promised that the Congress will deposit Rs. 72,000 every year into the bank accounts of women if the party comes to power at the Centre after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing a public meeting in Kolar, the constituency which will go to polls on Thursday (April 18), Mr. Gandhi said the Congress has promised a minimum income guarantee scheme (MIGS), formally called Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY), to 5 crore of the “poorest families” covering 25 crore people by assuring them a guarantee minimum income of Rs. 6,000 per month or Rs 72,000 per year.

He alleged that the Modi government has cheated the people of the country by not implementing his 2014 election promise of depositing Rs. 15 lakh each in the bank account of citizens. In 2014, Mr. Modi’s major election plank was that he would bring back billions of dollars of ‘black money’ slashed abroad, and deposit Rs. 15 lakh into the bank accounts of every Indian citizen, Mr. Gandhi said.

Mr. Gandhi alleged that Mr. Modi had stolen money from pockets of shopkeepers, farmers, traders and the poor and given it to bank defaulters such as Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya and a group of people, who fled the country. “He (Mr. Modi) is leading the team of chors (thieves),” Mr Gandhi alleged.

By implementing faulty policies such as demonetisation and Goods and Services Act, the Modi government has increased the sufferings of the traders, farmers and the poor, he alleged.

Mr. Gandhi promised filling 24 lakh vacancies in various government departments and providing jobs to the youth if the party formed the government at the Centre. “Farmers will not be allowed to go to jail for not repaying loans borrowed from banks. We will waive crop loans of all farmers,” the Congress chief said.

He claimed that Mr. Modi, who promised providing two crore jobs to unemployed youth in 2014, had stopped speaking about jobs and development. There was no mention of providing jobs to unemployed youth in the BJP poll manifesto, he added.