Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced a few poll promises for the voters in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh on Monday. Speaking at a rally in Jabalpur, Gandhi said the Congress, if elected to power in the state, would slash the price of gas cylinders from Rs 1,000 to Rs 500. Among other promises made by Gandhi were:

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100 units of free electricity and the bill for 200 units would be halved.

> Old Pension Scheme in Madhya Pradesh

> The debt of farmers would be waived off

The Congress recently won in Karnataka where elections were held in May this year. The party secured a thumping victory in the state, ousting the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party is currently in power in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In all the states, it promised to bring the Old Pension Scheme and managed to do so in all of them. The party also launched a free bus service in Karnataka, fulfilling its poll promise.

Gandhi hit out at the BJP at the rally, saying that the party came here and made announcements, but did not fulfil them. "They talk about double engine and triple engine. They used to say the same in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka but the public has shown them that they should stop talking about the double engine and start working," she added.

MP election 2023

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections are due in the next six months. In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress won 114 of 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP finished second by winning 109 seats. The Congress formed a coalition government with the support of Independents BSP, and SP.

However, BJP's Shivraj Singh Chouhan was sworn in as the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh in 2020 after Kamal Nath resigned on March 20. Nath took the step after 22 Congress MLAs resigned and joined the BJP, pushing his government into a minority.

Last week, Hindutva outfit Bajrang Sena merged with the Congress in Madhya Pradesh months ahead of the assembly polls, alleging the BJP had come to power in the state by cheating the people's mandate and has deviated from the path. Bajrang Sena (BS) leaders are close to former minister Deepak Joshi, who had quit BJP to join Congress, news agency PTI reported.