HYDERABAD: Non-implementation of prestigious welfare schemes, strong anti-incumbency against around 45 sitting MLAs and the alleged ‘family-rule’ of KCR were the main factors that worked against the ruling BRS in the elections.
Disgruntlement among government employees and teachers against the BRS too proved costly for the party. The pink party also sagged under the weight of its prestigious schemes like 2BHK and Dalit Bandhu.
After the results, people are openly saying that only a few got 2BHK houses and financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh under Dalit Bandhu.
The dream of the BRS to score a hat-trick and form the government for a third consecutive time in south India has been shattered, the party biting the dust with the Congress winning the polls with a comfortable majority.
Adding salt to its wounds, the BRS supremo lost from Kamareddy at the hands of BJP candidate K Venkata Ramana Reddy. However, the defeat is by no means humiliating for the BRS as it won 39 seats and will play the role of the principal Opposition party in the State. This is because the BRS government disbursed over Rs 70,000 crore to 70 lakh farmers in the last five years under Rythu Bandhu. Aasara pensions also helped the party win in key pockets. However, the people decided to give a chance to the Congress, as BRS chief and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is not accessible to the people.
Though KCR, in all his 96 election meetings, asked farmers whether they wanted the Dharani portal to be continued, it appears that the portal is unacceptable to marginal farmers who were upset due to the many glitches. The BRS government failed to rectify the mistakes in land records on Dharani portal, which was also one of the reasons for its defeat.
As the BRS failed to satisfy people in constructing 2BHK houses and provide Dalit Bandhu to all eligible, the people, it seems, did not believe in the new assurances given in the manifesto.The schemes announced before the polls like Rs 1 lakh financial assistance to BCs and minorities too were not disbursed as expected by the people. This was evident from the fact that minorities and BCs too voted for the Congress in rural areas. The second phase of sheep distribution scheme was announced but it never took off.
The anti-incumbency factor was sensed by some of the ministers before the polls. Finance Minister T Harish Rao went to the Palakurthy Assembly segment in the last leg of the campaigning and appealed to people to vote for Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao. Another factor is that people were not happy with around 40 to 45 sitting MLAs.Analysts opine that the people began wondering if the Kalvakuntla family would rule the state forever and decided to give a chance to the Congress.