Congress’ renewed vigour in Telangana in hope of repeating Karnataka win
Buoyed by Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra final yr, the Congress had begun focussing on farmers’ points, land rights, corruption, and unemployment in preparation for the Telangana Meeting election, which is due any time earlier than December. The preliminary momentum waned a bit over time, however the current Karnataka Meeting election outcomes have reignited power and hope, drawing leaders from different events into the Congress fold.
On July 2, the get together organised a public assembly referred to as Telangana Jana Garjana Sabha at Khammam. In line with media reviews and Congress spokespersons, lakhs of individuals attended Rahul Gandhi’s public gathering. If voted to energy, Gandhi promised that his get together would supply Rs.4,000 a month to the aged and widows. He labelled Okay. Chandrashekar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) “the B-team of the BJP”.
The assembly served two functions: to mark the tip of Congress chief Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s padayatra throughout the State, and to welcome a number of leaders of Khammam, together with former BRS MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, into the get together. Reddy’s entry into the Congress strengthens its prospects within the Khammam area, which has 10 Meeting seats.
Additionally Learn | Telangana BJP struggles with management disaster and ideological incongruity
Vikramarka’s march over 109 days coated 1,350 kilometres in 17 districts, 36 Meeting segments, and over 750 villages. He mentioned folks primarily talked about problems with land, unemployment, housing, and irrigation. In line with him, in a number of villages he visited, the folks additionally raised problems with self-respect and freedom of expression.
Vikramarka mentioned his subsequent focus could be on points regarding “assigned land” beneficiaries and “pending irrigation initiatives”. Assigned lands are parcels of land allotted to the poor and marginal teams for agricultural functions. These lands can’t be bought or transferred by registration to anybody else. The Congress has accused the BRS of snatching assigned land from farmers within the identify of growth. The get together can also be protesting in opposition to the federal government’s failure to finish irrigation initiatives on the Krishna and Godavari rivers.
Electoral guarantees
On the public assembly, Srinivas Reddy criticised the BRS for failing to implement its election guarantees, resembling farm mortgage waivers and unemployment allowance. The Congress has plans to incorporate a Rs.2 lakh farm mortgage waiver and an elevated minimal help worth for paddy crop in its election manifesto.
The Congress additionally intends to incorporate tenant farmers within the Telangana authorities’s funding help scheme and to increase help to landless farmers registered beneath the Mahatma Gandhi Nationwide Rural Employment Assure Act.
One other promise is to scrap the Dharani portal (an built-in land data administration system), citing irregularities. The get together alleges that there are literally thousands of cases the place farmers have misplaced their lands due to it.
Considerably, the media, too, has began to place the Congress get together as the first opposition to the BRS in Telangana. Till a couple of months in the past, the BJP had loved that spot.
In line with the political analyst and author Telakapalli Ravi, the hype has transferred from the BJP to the Congress. “For that matter, the Congress by no means died in Telangana. It’s only that the BRS absorbed Congress MLAs,” he instructed Frontline.
M. Bhatti Vikramarka (proper), Congress Legislature Celebration chief, interacting with tribal folks at Keslapur village in Adilabad throughout his padayatra over 109 days overlaying 1,350 kilometres.
| Photograph Credit score:
By Particular Association
When Telangana’s Statehood dream was realised in 2014, the Congress was in energy on the Centre, however within the Meeting elections in 2014 and 2018, it misplaced to the BRS (then often called the TRS). In each elections, nevertheless, the get together managed to take care of a decent vote and seat share (21 seats within the 119-member Home with a vote share of 25.02 per cent in 2014 and 19 of the 100 seats it contested in 2018, with a vote share of 28.4 per cent) regardless of shedding MLAs to defection.
The infighting and lack of foresight however, the Congress has survived in Telangana. And the Karnataka election has apparently attracted disgruntled leaders from different events to the Congress now.
Jupally Krishna Rao, a five-time MLA from Kollapur, stop the Congress over the Telangana statehood situation in 2011. He was elected MLA in 2014 from the BRS however misplaced to the Congress candidate in 2018, who ultimately defected to the BRS. Krishna Rao has returned to the Congress fold. He and Srinivas Reddy have been suspended from the BRS earlier this yr for “anti-party actions”.
Pidamarthi Ravi, former chairman of the Telangana Scheduled Castes Company and a statehood motion chief, has additionally joined the Congress. He mentioned he did so due to the unfulfilled aspirations of Dalits, Bahujans, and minorities in Telangana.
Regardless of this, some observers consider that infighting may nonetheless have an effect on the get together’s revival in Telangana, particularly given the persistent discontent with Revanth Reddy, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president.
“There’s some compelled unity within the State Congress unit necessitated by the election,” mentioned Telakapalli Ravi, including that repeating the Karnataka ends in Telangana could be troublesome as a result of the anti-incumbency sentiment was decrease right here.
Highlights
- Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Karnataka Meeting election outcomes have reinvigorated the Congress get together in Telangana.
- The get together has its deal with points resembling land rights, unemployment, housing, irrigation, and enhancing the lot of farmers within the State.
- Nonetheless, observers consider that the BRS nonetheless holds a powerful place in Telangana. It appears to have pre-empted the Congress strikes.
BRS’ response
BRS leaders see the Congress’ guarantees as grandstanding and level to the ensures which can be but to be carried out in Karnataka. BRS working president and Minister Okay.T. Rama Rao took a dig on the challenges the Congress faces in implementing its Anna Bhagya (free rice to BPL and Antyodaya Anna cardholders) promise in Karnataka and contested its “assure” to offer Rs.4,000 as pension in Telangana.
Additionally Learn | Yatra fever takes over in Telangana as election season heats up
A number of BRS leaders requested whether or not the identical quantity was the norm in Congress-ruled States. In line with them, Telangana already has a complete pension coverage (Rs.2,016 a month) for aged residents, widows, single ladies, toddy tappers, weavers, HIV sufferers, and beedi employees. Earlier, in June, Chief Minister Okay. Chandrashekar Rao authorized Rs.4,116 a month, a rise of Rs.1,000, to folks with disabilities.
The renewed power within the Telangana Congress unit however, observers consider that the BRS retains its shine and that the emotions of the Telangana motion are nonetheless alive. The Congress will thus nonetheless face a formidable problem from the BRS, whose maintain in Telangana appears comfy.
