Going for a late slog, in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly polls, the Janata Dal Secular, headed by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, on Monday came up with a populist manifesto that promises to write off all debts of farmers and unorganised labourers within one year. It also promises to fight for 30 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in the state’s booming IT and Biotechnology companies and scrap the Common Entrance Test.

Aimed at a highly improbable solo victory, the JDS manifesto promises several candies such as free cooking gas and stoves for the poor, Government guarantees for loans obtained by educated but unemployed youth and new housing and insurance schemes. Gowda also intends to take away the reservations currently enjoyed by some of the major backward castes and divide it among other castes. He said the party would fill up all government vacancies.

In a surprise move, he also announced a JDS vision to model the development of Bangalore on that of Chinese cities, Beijing and Shanghai. JDS, BJP and Congress legislators were sent on a sightseeing tour of China during the previous JDS-BJP regime. “To meet the challenge of a growing Bangalore, our party has decided to adopt a vertical model of growth for buildings in the city, on the lines of what is seen in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing,” he said.

The manifesto said the JDS would launch “Soubhagya” housing scheme to provide houses for all homeless within five years and introduce “Suraksha”, a new insurance policy for owners of rickshaws, taxis, private lorries and buses, to pay compensation to the families of deceased drivers.

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