New Delhi: Of the three main parties contesting in the Telangana election, the manifestos of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the primary opposition Congress party have the most in common.Promises around financial assistance programmes building on running BRS schemes are a major source of the similarities.The BJP’s promises on this front are dissimilar to those of its opponents, not featuring the same extent of clearly defined financial assistance packages for target groups.Both the BJP and the Congress promise to increase reservations for OBCs, SCs and STs, but only the BJP has promised to do away with reservations for the Muslim community. The BJP’s manifesto is also unique in promising to completely ban cow slaughter in the state.Illustration: Pariplab ChakrabortyAll three parties have agreed on the need for a detailed calendar for government job recruitments, likely in the wake of back-to-back exam cancellations or rescheduling earlier this year.Here are some party-wise highlights of what the electorate has been promised so far.BRSThe ruling party’s manifesto – at least as it appears on its website – is compact, consisting of fifteen promises.A good chunk of these promises involves building on the party’s existing schemes.It has promised to gradually increase its flagship ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme, currently amounting to Rs 10,000 per acre every year to land-owning farmers, to Rs 16,000 per acre every year.The party also says it will increase its existing monthly ‘pensions’ gradually over its third term in power if elected. It proposes to increase its ‘Aasara’ pension, given to a range of beneficiaries including widows, the elderly, AIDS patients and beedi workers, from Rs 2,016 per month to Rs 5,016 per month.It has also promised to increase pensions to the physically handicapped from Rs 3,016 per month to Rs 6,016 per month.It will increase the coverage limit for its flagship health insurance scheme for families to Rs 15 lakh and promised a new life insurance scheme worth Rs 5 lakh for all below poverty line (BPL) families in the state, in which the government would shoulder the full premium.The ruling BRS (earlier TRS) has relied significantly on its welfare schemes in asking for a third term in power. Photo: X/@KTRBRS.Eligible poor women have been promised a monthly honorarium of Rs 3,000, eligible poor families gas cylinders at Rs 400 and white ration card holders are assured fine rice.Publishing a “detailed calendar” for government job recruitment, opening one residential school for poor students from upper castes in every constituency and upgrading over 200 minority junior degree colleges in the state are some of the other promises in the BRS’s manifesto.The detailed calendar promise is important as exam cancellations earlier this year put the BRS in a tight spot, creating frustration among aspiring youth and providing ammunition to the growing opposition bloc in the state.CongressThe centrepiece of the Congress’s 40-plus-page manifesto for Telangana is the ‘six guarantees’ announced at its September public meeting near Hyderabad.As part of its ‘Rythu Bharosa’ guarantee, the Congress promises to give Rs 15,000 per acre to land-owning as well as tenant farmers, and Rs 12,000 every year to farm labourers.Although similar to the BRS’ Rythu Bandhu scheme, an important difference between the two is the Congress’s promise to also pay tenant farmers and farm labourers – the BRS’s flagship scheme only benefits landholding farmers.Some other guarantees are a monthly ‘pension’ of Rs 4,000 to a constituency consisting of, among others, senior citizens, widows, AIDS patients and beedi workers (very similar to the BRS’ Aasara beneficiaries); a monthly honorarium of Rs 2,500 to women; Rs 10 lakh health insurance to eligible beneficiaries and gas cylinders at Rs 500 for those eligible.The offered benefits, including the amounts of financial assistance, are quite similar to those promised by the BRS – indeed, the BRS had attempted to one-up many of the Congress’ guarantees (some of which already resemble running BRS schemes) when it released its manifesto a month later.Its prospects for the polls initially written off, the Congress has risen to become the primary opposition party in Telangana. Second from left is the party’s state chief Revanth Reddy. Photo: X/@INCIndia.The remaining guarantees involve free electricity units, assistance in house-building for the homeless as well as for “fighters” of the Telangana statehood movement, and financial assistance to students.Apart from these six promises, various ‘declarations’ made by the party in the state over this year also feature in its manifesto.These span topics across agriculture, employment and caste, and include assurances to waive off crop loans worth Rs 2 lakh, doing away with the BRS’ Dharani land management portal, Rs 4,000 every month to unemployed “youth”, government job recruitment calendars every year, electric scooters to “young women above 18 years of age” pursuing education, and a caste survey within six months of coming to power.The party has a draft job recruitment calendar at the end of its manifesto and says it will fill two lakh vacancies within a year of taking over.In its ‘SC/ST Declaration’ made in August, which is also present in the manifesto, the Congress says it will increase reservations for SC and ST communities to 18% and 12% respectively in government procurement and public works contracts.And in its ‘BC Declaration’, the grand old party said it will increase reservations for OBCs in local bodies and in government construction contracts based on the results of the caste survey it promises to conduct.Other promises include cash and/or gold to eligible brides (to rival the BRS’s Kalyana Lakshmi/Shadi Mubarak scheme), free travel for women in state buses, issuing ration cards on a continuous basis, increasing the education budget, and a “full-fledged inquiry by a retired high court judge on the various scandal and corruption allegations” during the BRS’ time in power.BJPThe BJP agrees with the Congress on removing the Dharani portal and on having a high court judge-led “investigation [into] various projects commissioned in the name of development … that have seen huge cost escalation and corruption” during BRS rule.It is also in consonance with both the Congress and the BRS on the need for a job calendar to fill vacancies in government posts.The removal of Bandi Sanjay Kumar (third from right) as state chief is seen by many as taking the edge off the saffron party’s campaign in Telangana. Photo: X/@BJP4Telangana.But unlike the BRS and Congress, the BJP’s manifesto does not promise the same extent of financial assistance or ‘pension’ schemes, and Amit Shah said earlier this month that the party had “clearly demarcated a lakshman rekha with regard to welfare versus freebies”.For farmers, the saffron party promises (among other things) Rs 2,500 as input assistance for seeds and fertilisers to small farmers in addition to “the Modi government’s fertiliser subsidy of over Rs 18,000 per acre”.It has promised health insurance worth Rs 10 lakh for eligible families under its Ayushman Bharat scheme and said it will leverage funds under the rural edition of the PM Awas Yojna, claiming the BRS has not used them.On caste, some of the party’s promises include making a BC leader as chief minister if elected to power and increasing reservations for OBCs, SCs and STs by abolishing and reallocating the quota for Muslims, which it maintains is unconstitutional.Like the BRS and Congress, the BJP has also made promises regarding LPG cylinders, but unlike them, it has promised instead to give four gas cylinders for free to beneficiaries of the PM Ujjwala scheme.The BJP has also promised free laptops to undergraduate women students or women entering professional college courses, and a fixed deposit scheme that will allow newborn girls to receive Rs 1 lakh when they turn 18 and another lakh when they turn 21. It did not specify eligibility criteria in the manifesto text.But some of the party’s most salient promises are under its manifesto’s heritage and culture section.Here, it says the “current dispensation” has ‘undermined’ the efforts of those who died during Hyderabad’s accession to India by celebrating its anniversaries as Hyderabad Integration Day instead of “Hyderabad Liberation Day”, which it promises to celebrate instead.It also promises to observe August 27 as “Razakars Horrors Remembrance Day” on the lines of “Partition Horrors Remembrance Day” as well as to encourage the “rejuvenation of temples across the state”.Finally, the party declared that a “complete ban on cow slaughter will be implemented in the state as per Article 48 of the constitution”. Offenders under its proposed law will be punished with prison time between three and seven years and/or with a fine between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh, the BJP said, adding that any farmer wishing to possess a cow will be given a healthy, milk-yielding cow in tie-ups with goshalas.
