BHOPAL: Ahead of by-polls on 24 seats, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday took a dig at the previous Congress government and sought its reply on why it failed to help farmers with debt above Rs 2 lakh. Chouhan said that earlier he had asked three questions from Kamal Nath and now he is asking why did the Congress government betray the farmers

After addressing a virtual rally at the BJP state head office, the CM said, “Congress had made false promises to come to power in the state. It had promised that loans of all farmers would be waived off, but it betrayed the people and tried to make excuses.” The chief minister said, “I wish to ask Kamal Nath and Rahul Gandhi why didn’t they waive debts of Rs 2 lakh and above?” Chouhan said that after forming the government, Kamal Nath refused to fulfill the promises made to farmers. “About eight lakh farmers have become defaulters and are paying 14 per cent interest on their loan,” said Chouhan while assuring that the BJP government will not let the farmers suffer. “I want to assure the farmers that we will help the farmers,” said Chouhan.

On Wednesday, Chouhan had posed three questions before Kamal Nath. “Didn’t you promise to waive off loan up to Rs 2 lakh of all farmers? Was there a time limit for loan waiver? And did you say that I will waive off the debt of one bank and not of another?” The chief minister said that the Congress manifesto had promised loan waiver as top priority. The then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had claimed that loan will be waived within 10 days of coming to power in the state.