Bengaluru: Just minutes after Siddharamaiah was sworn in as the Chief Minister and D.K. Shivakumar as  Deputy Chief Minister, along with eight others as Cabinet Ministers of the new Congress Government on Saturday, the Karnataka Cabinet in its maiden Budget meeting yesterday afternoon, accorded ‘In-principle’ approval to implement the Congress Party’s five guarantees.

The first Cabinet meeting was held at Vidhana Soudha after Siddharamaiah took oath as the new Chief Minister at the sprawling Sree Kanteerava Stadium here yesterday. The Congress party’s five poll guarantees are 200 units of free power to all households (Gruhajyothi scheme), Rs. 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10 Kgs of Rice for free to every member of a BPL family (Anna Bhagya), Rs. 3,000 monthly allowance to unemployed Graduate youths and Rs. 1,500 monthly allowance to unemployed Diploma holders (Yuvanidhi) and free travel for women in Public transport buses (Shakti).

Speaking after the Cabinet meeting along with DCM D.K. Shivakumar and his eight other cabinet colleagues, Siddharamaiah said “The five guarantees have been agreed upon. We will not go back on the promises for any reason,” he said, adding that the assurances would be fulfilled notwithstanding any financial implications.

The CM said the initial estimation of the Government is that the implementation of the guarantees would cost the exchequer Rs. 50,000 crore a year. The assurances promised before the elections would be implemented after the next Cabinet meeting, he added. During the campaign for the May 10 elections, Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi repeatedly assured the voters that these five guarantees would be approved in the first Cabinet meeting after Congress comes to power.

As announced, the newly sworn-in Congress Government headed by Siddharamaiah has given in-principle approval for the implementation of the guarantees. Many political observers believe that the promise of guarantees found resonance with the people during the campaigning, particularly women and played a key role in the victory of the Congress in the Assembly polls.

Three-day Assembly session from tomorrow

Chief Minister Siddharamaiah on Saturday said the Assembly session will be convened for three days from May 22 to 24, during which the newly elected MLAs will be administered oath and a new Speaker will be elected.

“We are calling the Assembly session for three days from May 22 to 24. We have requested the Governor to convene the session as the new Assembly has to be constituted before May 24. Also, senior most MLA R.V. Deshpande has been requested to be the Pro-tem Speaker to administer oath to newly elected MLAs,” Siddharamaiah  said adding that while the first two-days (May 22 and 23) will be reserved for oath taking of the MLAs, the election of the Speaker of the new Assembly will take place on the third day (May 24).