A day after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge pulled up Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar for sending a “wrong message” ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections by allegedly suggesting that the Karnataka government’s flagship scheme of free bus travel for women might be revised, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Congress was realising the “hard way that making unreal promises is easy but implementing them properly is tough or impossible”.

At a Congress meeting in Bengaluru on Thursday, Kharge said, “Looking at your five guarantees I have announced five in Maharashtra. You (Shivakumar) have said we will dump one of the guarantee schemes. You do not read the newspapers and I am talking about what has been reported. By saying you will revise the scheme you have created doubts. It has benefitted the Opposition (in the state).”

Kharge said the Congress’s central leadership had asked its Maharashtra unit to consider financial viability before announcing guarantees in its manifesto for the November 20 polls. “I have said they should not announce multiple guarantees but they should announce based on the available budget. Going beyond the budget will lead to financial problems, If there are no funds for roads people will be angry,” Kharge said, adding that the party was keen on ensuring that guarantees announced before the polls were “realistic”.

Kharge further said, “We received a report 15 days ago and we will make an announcement in Nagpur or Mumbai.”

Taking on the Congress, PM Modi said in a series of posts on X, “Campaign after campaign they promise things to the people, which they also know they will never be able to deliver. Now, they stand badly exposed in front of the people!” He used the #FakePromisesofCongress with his post.

“Check any state where the Congress has governments today — Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana — the developmental trajectory and fiscal health is turning from bad to worse. Their so-called Guarantees lie unfulfilled, which is a terrible deceit upon the people of these states. The victims of such politics are the poor, youngsters, farmers and women, who are not only denied the benefits of these promises but also see their existing schemes diluted,” the PM wrote.

Modi urged people to be “vigilant against the Congress sponsored culture of fake promises”. He said there was a growing realisation across India that a vote for the Congress would be a “vote for non-governance, poor economics and unparalleled loot”.

“In Karnataka, Congress is busier in intra-party politics and loot instead of even bothering to deliver on development. Not only that, they are also going to rollback existing schemes. In Himachal Pradesh, salaries of Government workers is not paid on time. In Telangana, farmers are waiting for the waiver they promised. Previously, in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan they promised certain allowances which were never implemented for five years. There are numerous such examples of how the Congress works,” Modi wrote.

In response to the PM, Kharge wrote on X, “Lies, Deceit, Fakery, Loot & Publicity are the 5 adjectives which best describe your Govt! Your drumbeating regarding a 100-day plan was a cheap PR stunt!” The Congress president questioned the Modi government, among other things, over unemployment, its promise to create “2 crore jobs per year”, inflation, and alleged corruption.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also hit out at Modi saying he should “take a hard look” at the BJP’s “disastrous legacy” in the state. “We are fulfilling every promise we made to our people … BJP left Karnataka plagued with 40% commission corruption, draining resources that could have transformed lives … What was your ‘achievement’ here? Empowering corrupt practices, leaving Karnataka debt-ridden, and using propaganda to cover up your failures?” Siddaramaiah wrote on X.

Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and other senior Congress leaders also reacted to the PM’s post and listed their governments’ “achievements”.

The Deputy CM has said his comments had been taken out of context. “My statement has been twisted. I only said that many economically empowered women working in the IT sector and MNC companies have expressed interest in paying for tickets as they get conveyance allowance from their companies. I said I would discuss this with the Transport Minister. I never said that the guarantee scheme would be stopped,” Shivakumar said on Thursday.

He added, “There is absolutely no question of withdrawing any of the five guarantee schemes. But we cannot force the guarantee schemes down the throats of people who do not want it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a public appeal to voluntarily give up LPG subsidy. I only said that something similar could be done. As the KPCC president and the Deputy CM, I reiterate that none of the schemes will be withdrawn at any cost. These schemes will continue not only for the next three-and-a-half years but also for five more years in the next term of the Congress government.”

On Friday, Shivakumar said, “Karnataka’s guarantee model has become a model at the national level. Even the BJP-ruled states have copied our models. This is a matter of pride for us.”

Targeting the Congress, BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference in Delhi on Friday, “The Congress president has said that guarantees should be announced only on the basis of availability of budget and financial provisions. The BJP would like to ask a very clear and categorical question from the esteemed Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge that today you are realising that you should not make reckless announcements and that only those with financial and budgetary provisions should be made. Has he given this advice to his leader Rahul Gandhi?”

The Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, R Ashoka, said, “On the whole, Karnataka is languishing without progress due to the selfish politics of the Congress leaders and mismanagement without vision. Kannadigas are helpless without a government that responds to their problems.”

— With ENS Delhi inputs