Amit Malviya – BJP leader:

The Congress must decide on its CM candidate soon since people are waiting for them to fulfil their 5 guarantees, which will cost the exchequer 51,150 crore (doesn’t include free bus passes promised) and is 21.6% (will be higher after accounting for free bus passes) of Karnataka’s total budget.

At the moment, Karnataka’s total receipt is 2.26 lakh crore and expenditure 2.87 lakh crore.

With the 5 guarantees, the fiscal deficit will widen to 1.14 lakh crore or 4.8% of the GSDP (up from 60,582 crore or 2.6% of GSDP right now).

But none of it matters because this will have to be approved in the first cabinet meeting. The State’s finances be damned.

One hopes Congress doesn’t do a Rajasthan, MP or a Himachal in Karnataka and go back on its words, which won’t be surprising.