Telangana Assembly Election 2018: From agriculture to vote-bank politics, here are the key poll issues in focus

As Telangana heads for Assembly elections on 7 December, politicians have raised a number of issues in the campaigns leading up to the day. While some issues like farmers’ grievances and unemployment are socially relevant and directly affect the lives of people, others like politics over minority vote banks and the Telangana pride are clearly sentimental issues that politicians created for votes.

Most exit polls have predicted that the TRS will return to power for another term in Telangana.

Here are the key polls issues in the state:

Agriculture

If there is one issue dominating the Telangana poll campaign, it is agriculture. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have all promised farm loan waivers. TRS, which implemented a scheme in 2014 to waive Rs 1 lakh off all farm loans, has promised to repeat the scheme if voted to power again.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) had earlier said that the investment support to farmers under the “Rythu Bandhu” scheme would be increased to Rs 10,000 per acre per annum from the current Rs 8,000. He had also highlighted the free power given to the farm sector.

The Congress has also promised loan waivers of up to Rs 2 lakh for farmers if voted to power.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy had alleged that the TRS had copied the main points of its manifesto, after ridiculing farm loan waivers and other promises. The Congress had earlier contended that the farm loan waiver scheme implemented by the TRS government did not benefit farmers as it was done in a phased manner. Former party president Sonia Gandhi had said farmer suicides were taking place in Telangana and cultivators were still facing water scarcity.

The BJP has also promised farm loan waivers of up to Rs 2 lakh.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had, on 30 November , flayed the TRS government in Telangana over the alleged suicides of more than 4,000 farmers in the state in the past four and a half years.

Unemployment

In 2017, The New Indian Express had stated that according to a report titled ‘Unemployment in India – A statistical profile’ prepared by the Bombay Stock Exchange and Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Telangana had the third-highest level of unemployment among graduates in the country.

Naturally, unemployment has become another major poll issue for the state. Enhancement of retirement age of government servants by three years to 61 and unemployment allowance to the youth are among the promises made in the TRS manifesto. The party also promised enhancement of all types of “Aasara” pensions from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,016 and also announced an allowance of Rs 3,016 per month for the unemployed.

However, CPI national general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy had criticised the move. “Instead of filling up vacancies (in government offices), KCR is promising unemployment allowance. This looks ridiculous and insulting and cheats the unemployed youth,” he had said.

However, the Congress and TDP – CPI’s allies in the Telangana polls under the “Prajakutami” banner – have also promised an allowance of Rs 3,000 to all unemployed youth in the state. At a rally, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had asked the crowd to spell out how many jobs KCR had created while in office. “Thirty lakh qualified youth of Telangana are unemployed. How many jobs did KCR create in his tenure?” he had asked.

The Congress has also assured the electorate that 20,000 teachers’ posts would be filled through the District Selection Committee. The party has claimed that 1 lakh jobs in state government departments would be filled up within a year if it came to power in Telangana.

BJP has also promised an allowance of Rs 3,116 per month for the unemployed.

Telangana pride

“Sonia Gandhi is the mother of Telangana. We have a state because of her. KCR is not the creator. The entire world knows that,” Telangana Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy had said .

It is no surprise that all political parties are trying to appeal to the Telangana pride of voters as the country’s newest state goes to polls. Therefore, when “mother of Telangana” Sonia visited the state in November, she recalled the problems Congress had to face because of its decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and said that despite suffering from the consequences, the party had gone ahead and “created” Telangana.

“It (carving out Telangana) was not an easy task. It was no small decision. But former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party decided to form Telangana state,” News18 had quoted Sonia as saying. Keeping in mind the fact that Sonia has not addressed an election meeting in a long time, it is pretty clear why she addressed this particular rally in Telangana.

Of course, TRS claimed that it was the KCR-led agitation that had forced the then UPA government’s hand into creating Telangana. While back in June 2014, KCR had stated on the floor of the Telangana Assembly that people must remember Sonia had backed the creation of Telangana, as time passed, TRS began to claim that only KCR was responsible for the creation of the state.

The party has also been using Telangana pride to counter TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu. TRS leader T Harish Rao had said that Naidu is a “betrayer” of Telangana people , and there was a need to stop him from “indirectly controlling the state”.

Muslim vote bank

The role of Muslims, who constitute over 12 percent of Telangana’s 3.51-crore population, may become crucial in the Assembly polls. With a huge concentration of Muslim voters in state capital Hyderabad and some other districts, they are in a position to tilt the balance in nearly half of the 119 Assembly constituencies going to polls.

Muslim voters are believed to be between 35 and 60 percent in 10 constituencies in Hyderabad and anywhere between 10 to 40 percent in the 50 other constituencies spread across the rest of the state.

The support of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to the TRS in all constituencies, except the eight where AIMIM candidates are in the fray, may give KCR’s party some edge over its rivals. The Jamaat-e-Islami has also declared its support to the TRS, while the Jamaitul Ulema-e-Hind is backing the Congress. The United Muslim Forum, which comprises various Muslim religious and social organisations and is seen as a friendly to the AIMIM, also appears divided over supporting the TRS.

Those supporting the TRS argue that the four and a half years under the party were free from communal riots, and that it took some steps for the welfare and development of Muslims, such as opening over 250 residential schools, scholarships for students and schemes like “Shadi Mubarak”, under which financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh is provided for the marriage of poor women.

However, a section of Muslims is unhappy with the TRS for failing to fulfil its promise to increase reservation for the community from four percent to 12 percent. KCR blames Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this, as the Centre has been sitting on a resolution passed by the state Assembly. This section of Muslims is also apprehensive that KCR may join hands with the BJP after the Assembly elections. They cite the TRS’ support for the Modi government on demonetisation and other subjects, including elections for the posts of president and vice-president.

Welfare schemes

In November, KCR — in a reply to Modi criticising the TRS government for not joining the “Ayushman Bharat” scheme — had said  the welfare schemes implemented in Telangana were much better than the central policy.

In the last four and a half years, the TRS spent around “Rs 2 lakh crore on several welfare schemes, and the beneficiaries of these schemes will vote in favour of the TRS”,  Deccan Chronicle had quoted a senior party leader as saying.

And the leader does have a point. The party’s  schemes have been popular and have given the TRS a vote bank.

For instance, in Sircilla — the high-profile constituency of KCR’s son KT Rama Rao — weavers are more concerned about the fate of a government scheme that helped them overcome the scourge of suicides and improve their earnings. There is a fear among some sections that the scheme could be scrapped if the ruling TRS fails to retain power. The TRS government’s “free saree distribution scheme” had boosted production in the past year, giving a fillip to the powerloom industry in this constituency.

However, Shabbir Ali, who was Leader of Opposition in the Telangana Legislative Council, had said that KCR had “squandered” the state’s revenue surplus of Rs 301.20 crore on implementing such schemes. But the Congress itself has promised a number of such programmes and sops tailored for minority communities.

Needless to say, the success or failure of welfare schemes will play a crucial role in the Telangana polls.

With inputs from agencies