In Karnataka, voices against guarantees get louder in Congress

Voices within the ruling Congress are calling for a reassessment of the five guarantees after the party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls. The guarantees, which include free bus rides for women, free electricity up to 200 units, and cash transfer per woman head of a family, were key to the party's victory in the assembly polls. Congress MLA HC Balakrishna suggested a rollback of these schemes if election results were unfavorable. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president DK Shivakumar were confident of winning 15-20 seats but the party only secured nine.