Days after the Karnataka unit of Congress held a women’s convention in Bengaluru, the Bharatiya Janata Party is set to hold a national executive meeting of its women wing in Tumakuru on January 20 and 21, people in the know of the matter said on Thursday.
The national executive meeting will see participation of presidents and general secretaries of the Mahila Morchas from all the states. Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and party strategist and national organising general secretary BL Santosh are also expected to take part in the meeting.

“Priyanka Gandhi, who declared ‘Na Nayaki’, will disappear after the elections. Those who say ‘Na Nayaki’ have not given a chance to anyone else for years. Congress is making false promises. We will not make such promises,” BJP MLC KS Naveen said.

On Monday, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, addressed the ‘Na Nayaki’ (I am a woman leader) event in Bengaluru, and promised ₹ 2,000 a month to every woman head of households if the party is voted to power in the state.‘Gruha Lakshmi Yojana’ is an attempt by the Congress to share the “burden of the exorbitant” LPG prices and the “costly daily expenses” that a woman has to bear, the party had said.
Two days after the Congress convention, Bommai announced that the BJP will provide ₹2,000 to the families Below Poverty Line (BPL) in the state under the ‘Gruhini Shakti’ scheme.

State BJP Mahila Mocha president Geetha Vivekananda, hit out at the Congress and said that many of its promises have remained as slogans. “Elections were held in Chhattisgarh four years ago and ₹2,500 allowance for unemployed young women, ₹1,000 widow pension was promised but it has not been fulfilled. Similar promises were made in Himachal Pradesh which have not been implemented,” she said.

“Is it possible to give ₹2,000 to all housewives? This is politics of appeasement. Women of Karnataka are intelligent and won’t be fooled by these words,” she added.
Earlier, Bommai had termed the Congress’ new “guarantee” of giving ₹2,000 every month as an attempt out of desperation to mislead the people of the state ahead of assembly polls.

“They are desperate, despite all the circus and publicity they know that they will not be elected, they are in a way trying to mislead the people,” Bommai said.

“They could have done it while in power, why didn’t they do it, now what is the guarantee that they will do it?” Bommai asked.

Meanwhile, Congress MLA Priyank Kharge said the BJP is “playing catch-up” with the Congress by holding similar women-centric conventions in the state. “It doesn’t matter whether they do a convention in Tumakuru or Chitradurga or Kalaburagi, or the PM himself comes and says things, the people have suffered long enough to see through their plight,” Kharge said.
“In Karnataka, the BJP is playing catch-up to Congress. The BJP is embroiled in infighting and corruption charges… they have forgotten how to govern. We have exposed them repeatedly. We have understood the economic situation that is prevalent among the middle class as well as the poor people, and announced two major programmes as of now – Gruha Jyoti and Gruha Lakshmi Yojana,” Kharge said.

“Both these target the working class and the poor people who have been heavily affected by the economic distress,” he added.