D.K. Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah (Photo: PTI)
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, his deputy D K Shivakumar Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, party MPs and MLAs on Tuesday, January 27, took out a “Raj Bhavan Chalo” protest march over the “repeal” of MGNREGA.
The leaders marched towards Lok Bhavan, the official residence of the state Govenor, as part of the protest against the Centre’s move to replace MGNREGA with VB-G RAM G, the new rural employment guarantee act.
The Congress leaders later boarded a government bus and proceeded to the Lok Bhavan, formerly Raj Bhavan, where they submitted a memorandum to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot.
During the protest, they alleged that the Union government was dismantling the rural employment guarantee framework and curtailing the rights of Panchayats.
Addressing protesters, Siddaramaiah said the word ‘Ram’ in VB-G RAM G was not Dasharath Ram or Seeta Ram. It stands for Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Aajivika Mission (Gramin).
He said the UPA-era Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was a right to livelihood and employment, introduced by the Manmohan Singh-led government, and accused the incumbent dispensation of trying to destroy it.
“MGNREGA was the right of the people, but not any more. Around five crore people, including the differently-abled, were getting employment in the rural areas. The Centre now wants to decide what work should be done, whereas earlier it was done by Panchayats,” Siddaramaiah alleged, adding that the role of Panchayats had been severely curtailed.
The chief minister further claimed that each Panchayat was earlier getting around Rs one crore. Now they will be deprived of it.
“We will fight until VB-G RAM G is revoked and MGNREGA is re-established. VB-G RAM G does not guarantee employment the way MGNREGA did,” he said.
Accusing the BJP of attacking rural India, Siddaramaiah said, “Gandhiji said unless villages develop, the nation cannot develop. By scrapping MGNREGA, the BJP has killed Mahatma Gandhi once again.”
He called upon people for agitation in every village across the state.
Surjewala, who is also Congress’ Karnataka in-charge, alleged that the Centre was bent on scrapping the rural employment guarantee scheme. “The Union government wants to dismantle MGNREGA. I urge the Karnataka government to rename Panchayat centres as Mahatma Gandhi Kendra.”
Shivakumar warned of political consequences for the BJP, saying, “by scrapping MGNREGA, the BJP has invited trouble for itself. People in rural areas will not accept VB-G RAM G, and they will not pardon the BJP for repealing the employment guarantee law.”
Later, they submitted the memorandum to Gehlot.
According to the memorandum, one of the key objections is the shift in funding responsibility.
Under the MGNREGA, the Centre bore the entire wage cost, whereas the new law requires states to shoulder 40 per cent of the burden. The Karnataka leadership contended that states are already financially constrained due to issues related to GST compensation, Finance Commission allocations and extensive use of cess by the Centre, making it difficult for them to meet the additional expenditure.
It further stated that the new law takes away the demand-driven nature of rural employment.
The Congress leaders also objected to provisions linking rural employment works to centrally designed plans such as the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, arguing that this centralises control and sidelines Gram Panchayats, which earlier played a key role in planning and monitoring employment works.
Concerns were raised over the introduction of mandatory digital and biometric requirements, with the memorandum warning that such conditions would exclude poor, illiterate and digitally unaware rural workers. It also flagged uncertainty over wage fixation, stating that the new law does not guarantee payment of minimum wages and allows regional variations within States.
The memorandum termed the introduction of a 60-day “no-work” period during sowing and harvesting seasons as a move that would divide farmers and labourers, noting that agricultural cycles vary widely across regions and crops.
The Karnataka Congress leadership urged the Governor to take note of their objections and conveyed a demand for the immediate restoration of MGNREGA.
They also called upon the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet to apologise for what they described as an attack on the employment security and livelihood of crores of rural workers.
This post was last modified on January 27, 2026 4:00 pm