Image Source: ANI
Within two months of taking over the reins in Karnataka in May of this year, the Congress was forced to accede to claims that they would not be able to fulfill the unrealistic poll promises they had made to the people without amendments or attaching riders/conditions to the promised electoral incentives. The Congress is now repeating Karnataka’s tall pre-electoral promises for Telangana which is scheduled for state elections before the end of the year.
The Congress party refers to its Telangana’s pre-electoral sops as their “six guarantees”, similar to their “five guarantees” promised during the vigorous campaigning for Karnataka’s recent elections. The party’s Telangana state “six guarantees” are:
1) Mahalakshmi: ₹2,500 per month financial assistance to women and gas cylinders at ₹500.
2) Gruha Jyothi: 200 units of free electricity to each poor household + Free travel for women in state transport buses.
3) Rythu Bharosa: ₹15,000 for farmers, ₹12,000 per year for agricultural labourers, and a bonus of ₹500 per quintal for paddy above the minimum support price.
4) Indiramma Indlu: ₹5 lakh for the construction of houses for the homeless, besides a 250 square yard plot for houses of the families of martyrs in the state.
5) Yuva Vikasam: ₹5 lakh financial assistance to students from poor backgrounds for pursuing higher education, establishing “Telangana International Schools” in every block.
6) Cheyutha: health insurance cover of up to ₹10 lakh and ₹4,000 pension to the poor.
The Congress won the May 2023 Karnataka state elections on a combination of a weak campaign by the state’s BJP riddled with infighting and their own campaign strategy mainly anchored on attractive but unfeasible, fiscally irresponsible poll promises made to the people of the state.
In the first legislative session after coming to power, the party admitted there may be a delay in implementing the promises aside from adding riders/conditions for their unrealistic, expensive promises in order to meet the expenses from the state’s budget at least partially without incurring massive debts.
Karnataka’s chief minister Siddaramaiah flew to New Delhi recently to request the central government for additional funds or loans to fulfill the impractical pre-poll promises made by his party. However, the BJP at the Centre refused to entertain his requests in part or full. The Congress cried foul but in administrative circles, it was merely seen as an affirmation of the BJP’s policy against an unhealthy Congress-Communist-Socialist party culture of extreme welfarism and free dole with no strings attached, which is both financially feasible and unsustainable in the long run – Impractical, irresponsible spending of the country’s or a state’s resources, weakens its economy, does not result in creating qualitative employment opportunities and does not bring about a dignified upliftment of the poor, given the cumbersome bureaucratic process and a corruption-prone system.
Karnataka CM, Siddaramaiah who came back from New Delhi, sulking and fuming after his request for a financial bail-out was rejected by the Centre, may have had second thoughts about the unattainable pre-election promises he and his colleagues had recklessly made in order to win the elections but his party seems to have no regrets in repeating the mistake in Telangana by unbashedly announcing the same unfeasible, irresponsible promises in Telangana. Will the people get swayed by a bouquet of attractive but unrealistic promises and give the Congress a second chance it is desperately waiting for?
At the Congress’s CWC (Central Working Committee) meeting held at Hyderabad last week, it was Sonia Gandhi, rather than the de facto party president Mallikarjuna Kharge, who announced the schemes for the state where it appears to be a distant third to the Chief Ministership’s chair in Telangana, lagging behind K Chandrasekhar Rao’s ruling BRS party (Bharath Rashtra Samithi) and the BJP. Many see the Congress’s unrealistic poll promises as its leadership’s desperate attempt at wooing the people, staying relevant in the state’s politics, and regaining its past glory (easy wins for lack of strong competition in the earlier decades).
In the meanwhile, the Congress’s ‘six guarantees’ pre-poll manifesto is attracting jokes across the board. Senior BRS party leader, T Harish Rao who is the brother-in-law of Chief Minister K Chandrasekar Rao and Telangana’s Minister for Medical Affairs, Health, and Finance, has asked the Congress to first start implementing its tall poll promises in Karnataka where it has admitted to running into financial difficulties before it makes similar promises to fool the people of Telangana.
(Shivani is a freelance writer based in Vijayawada)
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