HYDERABAD: The Congress government, which is celebrating one year in office in the state, is facing several challenges from the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The two parties are devising strategies to unsettle the ruling party in the coming days. On its part, the Congress is focusing on fulfilling pending guarantees apart from launching new initiatives to keep the opposition at bay.
Its principal Opposition BRS plans to adopt an aggressive stance against the ruling Congress, aimed at highlighting the government’s alleged failure in implementing its electoral promises like farm loan waiver, Rythu Bharosa, Rs 2,500 per month for women, and issues concerning paddy procurement, establishment of pharma city, industrial park and land acquisition.
As part of it, the pink party is planning to organise ‘Deeksha Diwas’ on November 29 in all 33 districts on such a scale as reminiscent of former chief minister and BRS president K Chandrashekar Rao’s hunger strike for Telangana statehood in 2009. The party is also preparing to release a ‘chargesheet’ against the ruling Congress listing ‘failures’ and ‘false promises’ allegedly made by it ahead of the Assembly elections.
Similarly, the BJP is also gearing up to expose the government’s alleged failures in delivering on the six guarantees and other promises. The state BJP leadership is already going hammer and tongs against the government’s move to remove houses that came up on Musi riverbed for its ambitious river rejuvenation programme. The saffron party like the BRS is leaving no opportunity to accuse the Congress of failing to keep its Rs 2 lakh farm loan waiver promise.
Two-pronged action plan
In its bid to occupy bigger political space in Telangana and form next government, the BJP, which is buoyant after resounding victory in Maharashtra elections on Saturday and recently in Haryana, is preparing two-pronged action plan to go after the Congress government as well as its rival BRS for its failures during its previous tenure. Sources say that the national leadership is also determined to establish its rule in Telangana in the next Assembly polls.
Upcoming local body elections are expected to witness intense fight with the three parties trying to outwit each other. The Congress which came to power for the first time since formation of Telangana is determined to gain majority of local bodies, while BRS will leave no stone unturned to regain its stranglehold and BJP is looking at making inroads into votebank of the ruling party and the pink party. For Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Mahesh Kumar Goud, local body elections would be a major challenge as they would determine whether the ruling party continues to enjoy popularity among voters.
They are also equally crucial for the BRS, which lost power in the Assembly elections and failed to win a single seat in Lok Sabha elections held a few months later after remaining invincible in the state for 10 years. Defection of party MLAs to the Congress further dented the strength of the BRS. To regain its former glory, the BRS will have to really work hard as a preparatory for the bigger battle in the next Assembly elections.
The saffron party, which won eight Lok Sabha and eight Assembly seats in the state, is eyeing to increase its vote share in the local body polls.