BRS manifesto: Telangana Congress calls CM KCR 'copycat' over poll promises

For the first time after the formation of Telangana, the ready-witted Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) has found himself in an unpleasant situation with the Congress calling the Bharata Rashtra Samiti (BRS) manifesto, which he released on Sunday (October 15) as a "copy" of its six poll assurances.

Chief Minister KCR is known for his innovative ideas and ability to catch his rivals off guard. But, his poll manifesto for the November 30 Assembly elections disappointed many as he could not conceal its close resemblance to the Congress assurances, triggering a heated debate in political circles.

Congress calls KCR 'copycat'

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President A Revanth Reddy called KCR a "copycat" for imitating Congress assurances. By "copying" Congress assurances, he said, KCR endorsed the package as implementable. “On September 17, when Congress announced these six guarantees, BRS rubbished them as unimplementable. Now, by copying them, the chief minister has endorsed that they could be implementable,” Revanth said.

On the other hand, BRS working President and IT minister KT Ramarao (KTR) sought to turn the table on the Congress. “The Congress has lifted the schemes of six guarantees from BRS’s previous manifestos and renamed them as its guarantees,” KTR, son of CM KCR, said in a TV debate.

On September 17, Congress's former presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi released the party's six poll assurances for the people of Telangana. Modelled on its Karnataka assurances, six points have certainly given the Congress some perceptional advantage.

Now, they have charged that chief minister KCR had made an attempt in a rather uncreative way to blunt the Congress advantage.

LPG cylinder pricing

The Congress has assured people to provide LPG cylinders to each poor family for Rs 500 if the party is voted to power. Now, in an attempt to score over the Congress, KCR promised to provide an LPG cylinder at Rs 400.

The Congress also promised to launch a programme called Mahalakshmi to extend monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,500 for every poor woman, and KCR tried to counter it with his own scheme named Sowbhagya Lakshmi with an allowance of Rs 3,000 per month.

Similarly, Congress assured to hike the farm investment support (Rythu Bandhu) to Rs 15,000 per year per acre from the existing Rs 10,000. Curiously, KCR did not hesitate to announce a further hike to Rs 16,000 per year per acre.

The other assurance that made BRS’s manifesto a look-alike of Congress's six guarantees is the universal health insurance scheme called Rajiv Arogyasri. While the Congress promised to provide health coverage up to Rs 10 lakh, BRS promised insurance coverage up to Rs 4 lakh.

With regard to the pension for elders, the Congress promised to offer Rs 4,000 per month under a scheme called Cheyutha. KCR assured to increase the pension to Rs 5,000 per month in a phased manner.

Tenants ignored

Reacting to the battle between the BRS and Congress over offering freebies to lure voters, Prof. K Nageswar, a noted political commentator, said the competitive populism had reached "ridiculous levels" in Telangana. “It doesn’t augur well for the state. The state would benefit if these parties vie with each other to improve the public sector education which is a priority area even for most advanced countries like the US. Governance is given the go-by in the mad rush to please individual voters,” he said.

In fact, the BRS's manifesto has laid extraordinary emphasis on farmers, women, and Asasara pensioners. However, the party is silent on three important areas namely filling the vacancies in government departments, tenant farmers, and Muslim minorities.

Kanneganti Ravi, convenor of Rythu Swarajya Vedika, wondered how KCR refuses to recognise the existence of tenants.

“Tenants are the real cultivators who work in the fields. There are about 23 lakh tenants in Telangana. It is in this aspect that Congress has really scored over the BRS. Congress’s promise to extend the Rythu Bandhu scheme to tenant farmers is a great humanitarian measure,” Ravi said.

The farmers’ leader also slammed BRS for ignoring the welfare of the Muslims. “The Muslim welfare was reduced to a single sentence in the manifesto that Muslim welfare will be increased as if a second sentence would displease the BJP,” he said.

No unemployment allowance

The promise of providing unemployed allowance at the rate of Rs 3,016 per month along with a job calendar is conspicuously absent in the manifesto. The promise made before the 2018 elections was considered an important factor that contributed to BRS's win then.

Lack of recruitment, leak of question papers of Telangana Public Service Commission exams, and postponement of exams marred the final year of the BRS government. Still, there is no assurance whatsoever for the youth of the state.

Reacting to this, former IAS officer and president of the social democratic forum (SDF) Akunuru Murali said this shows KCR’s lack of priority for the developmental aspect of the state.

“Education and employment improve the economic well-being of the state. But these areas are ignored in the manifesto. Instead, more emphasis was laid on individual benefit schemes which the CM thinks would fetch votes,” Murali said.

BRS ministers and MLAs are upbeat about the hike in cash benefits for farmers, women, and pensioners. They consider the manifesto is going to be the game-changer in the Assembly elections.