Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], December 28 (ANI): Telangana state BJP Secretary Raghunandan Rao Madhavaneni on Saturday strongly criticised the Congress for announcing a 'MGNREGA Bachao' protest, calling it an 'election gimmick' and accusing the party of selectively invoking Mahatma Gandhi's name for political gain.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday announced that a nationwide 'Save Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)' campaign will be launched from January 5.

'In their 55 years of rule in the Indian government, how many schemes did they name after Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi. Let them give a white paper, then can we discuss and compare the schemes and fundamentals we are going to change... We increased the number of days of employment as well as the wage in MGNREGA. What is the issue with this?... When Mahatma Gandhi was alive, he wanted to see India like Ram Rajya... We changed the name of the scheme into VB-G RAM G. Congress is not interested in Mahatma Gandhi, but they are afraid of the name of Lord Ram and don't want to hear that name. This is Mallikarjun Kharge's ideology. They must first think about the deadlock between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar...,' he told ANI.

Calling the 'MGNREGA Bachao' protest an 'election gimmick,' Madhavaneni further said, 'If they were really interested in Mahatma Gandhi, they would have named multiple schemes after him, rather than after Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. They did not include the names of Lal Bahadur Shastri or Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. They just want political advantage for fake Gandhis...'

CM Siddaramaiah said the campaign would be launched in response to what he termed the Centre's attempt to weaken a landmark welfare law that guarantees employment to rural households.

Speaking to media representatives at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi, the Chief Minister expressed concern over the central government's decision and emphasised the importance of preserving the original scheme named after Mahatma Gandhi.

In a post on X, Siddaramaiah wrote, 'At today's Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Indira Bhawan, New Delhi, we unanimously condemned the Union Government's anti-federal and anti-national move to weaken the very spirit of the Employment Guarantee Programme by changing the name and structure of MGNREGA.'

On December 21, President Droupadi Murmu gave assent to the VB-G RAM G Bill, 2025, which replaced MGNREGA. The Act enhances the statutory wage employment guarantee to 125 days per financial year for rural households. It seeks to advance empowerment, inclusive growth, convergence of development initiatives and saturation-based delivery, thereby strengthening the foundation for a prosperous, resilient and self-reliant Rural Bharat. (ANI)