Karnataka polls 2018: Kitchens in rural Belagavi get a makeover with free stoves, cookers

BELAGAVI: Poonam Jamadade, a daily wage worker from Kangali (BK) village in Belagavi Rural assembly constituency, now has enough time to savour what she cooks, thanks to a branded three-burner glass-top stove which has reduced by two-thirds the time she spent in the kitchen.
Living in a single-room tenement in Kalmeshwar Nagar, Poonam had purchased an LPG cylinder two years ago.It took her months to save money to buy the cylinder. But she went for a poor-quality, single burner gas stove as she couldn’t afford any better.
It was definitely a leg-up from before but a single burner stove meant she spent 2-3 hours rustling up every meal.
Now that it is raining freebies in the run-up to the May 12 elections, Poonam has a branded quality stove helping her in the kitchen.
Because of the new stove, Poonam can now go to work on time in the morning. “I have no hesitation in saying that I’ll vote for the person who gifted me the stove, which has improved my quality of life to some extent,” Poonam told TOI.
Like Poonam, thousands of women voters in Belagavi Rural constituency say they have never had it this good, with political parties and their leaders gifting home appliances like gas stoves, pressure cookers and iron boxes to voters in about 90 villages in the segment. Saris, shirts and pant fabric too featured on the gifts list.
Janhavi Patil, a widow from Hindalaga village in the constituency, said she got a 5.5-litre pressure cooker with three pans from the candidate of a prominent political party.
Justifying accepting freebies from candidates during elections, she says, “I work as a labourer under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). I have a school-going son and the wages I earn come to nothing after paying house rent. Buying a pressure cooker is a distant dream for me. If a political leader gifts a pressure cooker and if I accept it, what’s wrong in that?”
Voters, enjoying freebies from all political parties, though have kept to themselves their decision on who they will vote for. It is for the parties to ensure their gifts bring benefits.
According to sources in the know, political parties and their leaders are doing due diligence before doling out gifts. They get their local leaders to ascertain the voters’ loyalties before handing out coupons to them. The voters have to produce the coupons while collecting the gifts from the goodies laden vehicles.