Kumaraswamy's Farm Loan Waiver Promise May Widen Gap Between JD(S) and Congress

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had promised farm loan waiver during the election campaign. By a quirk of fate with just 38 MLAs, he became the CM a month ago. The BJP which lost the power to him in just 56 hours is now after Kumaraswamy, demanding that fulfil his poll promise. And Deve Gowda’s son, who is running a shaky coalition government with the Congress, is in a fix.

As a part of the JD(S) election manifesto, Kumaraswamy had announced that the party would waive off all the debts of farmers, including the loans given by nationalised banks, if he was voted to power. Perhaps Kumaraswamy himself did not have much hope that his party would form the next government when he made this “impossible promise”.
According to state government sources, they need over Rs 53,000 crore to clear off the debts of farmers in cooperative and nationalised banks. The state finance ministry officials maintain that waiving off such a huge amount can be detrimental to the fiscal management of the state and have conveyed the same to the new CM.

Kumaraswamy had set a deadline of 15 days after coming to power to fulfil his promise and he has already completed almost a month in office. His major alliance partner Congress with 80 MLAs is not enthusiastic about the farm loan waiver, claim some party insiders.

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