Hyderabad: The Chandrababu Naidu government this week reopened the Anna Canteens, fulfilling a promise of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-Janasena Party (JSP) combine, that figured on the last page of their manifesto for the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls.
Named after TDP founder and former chief minister ‘Anna’ N.T. Rama Rao, Anna (big brother) Canteens provide subsidised meals for the working class and poor, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner costing Rs 5 each. The outlets, set up by the previous TDP regime, were closed after Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in 2019.
The TDP-JSP alliance, which trounced Jagan’s Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in the state elections held in May, secured a whopping 164 assembly seats, jointly with the BJP, which joined the combine later. Besides a big but quiet anti-incumbency wave, a heap of populist schemes announced by Naidu and his allies strengthened the vote surge against Jagan in the assembly election, according to observers.
However, in power for over two months now, the TDP-led alliance government is yet to begin delivery on the flagship set of assurances made to the 5.27 crore people of the state. YSRCP leaders have already questioned the delay.
Featured on the first page of the Prajagalam–Ummadi (joint) Manifesto 2024, along with the pictures of Naidu and JSP chief and now deputy CM Pawan Kalyan, are the ‘Super Six’ promises, made popular through the phrase, ‘Babu’s surety, good future guarantee’.
The six promises are 20 lakh jobs to the educated, skilled youth or Rs 3,000 per month unemployment allowance, Rs 15,000 support per annum per child to help poor mothers send kids to school, Rs 20,000 per annum assistance to farmers, Rs 1,500 per month financial aid to women, three free-of-cost gas cylinders per annum per family, and free rides for women on the Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses.
After the new government’s formation, when CM Naidu brought in a vote on account last month instead of a complete budget, the YSRCP alleged that the move was a “deliberate delay” to avoid fulfilling the poll promises. “Naidu is backing away from a full budget as he would have to incorporate allocations for his bogus poll promises,” former CM Jagan Mohan Reddy told reporters.
Speaking to ThePrint, former finance minister Buggana Rajendranath said that Naidu, failing to fulfil his “super six welfare promises and other tall impractical commitments”, has sought refuge in the white papers.
Since reassuming the CM chair in mid-June, four-time CM Naidu, has issued several white papers on matters ranging from power and natural resources to Amaravati and Polavaram, blaming Jagan’s “misgovernance of various sectors and mismanagement of financial resources as the root cause of the dire situation that AP is in”.
Last month, Naidu stated in the state assembly that his government was “not in a position to present a full budget due to financial crisis constraints”. Presenting a white paper on AP’s finances in the assembly, he said his government inherited debt and liabilities of Rs 9.74 lakh crore from Jagan and expressed concerns over his government’s current inability to move ahead on several matters covered in the election manifesto.
However, former YSRCP minister Ambati Rambabu said that Naidu, during poll time, made allegations that Jagan’s rule had bankrupted Andhra Pradesh. “So, Naidu knew the state of finances very well when making the super-six and other grand promises. Why the lame excuses now? Ditching people after coming to power is the TDP chief’s old habit,” Ambati told ThePrint, alleging that “Naidu, during his previous term, deceived farmers, SHG (self-help group) women with loan waiver promises”.
Asked for his response, Nara Lokesh, minister of human resources development, IT electronics & communication, and real-time governance in his father Naidu’s cabinet, said that Jagan and company “took three years to implement their promises”.
“We will implement all our promises — in a systematic manner,” Lokesh told ThePrint, adding that those who “shut down Anna Canteens have no right to question us on our sincerity and commitment in fulfilling poll promises”.
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‘Dreary state finances as a boogey to buy time’
CM Naidu, accompanied by his wife Nara Bhuvaneswari, inaugurated one Anna Canteen at Gudivada on Thursday, marking Independence Day. On Friday, Lokesh opened two such food outlets in his constituency Mangalagiri.
While at least 100 Anna Canteens have come up across the state, Naidu said the government will set up total 203 outlets by the end of September. Each canteen serves roughly 350 people, and the total daily expenditure on these canteens is Rs 53 lakh, i.e., roughly Rs 200 crore per annum.
The authorities have also announced a State Bank of India (SBI) account number for donations for Anna Canteens. Nara Bhuvaneswari has contributed Rs 1 crore on behalf of the NTR Memorial Trust, where she is a managing trustee.
The TDP led government has started implementation of another manifesto promise — hiking of welfare pensions for the elderly, the widowed, etc., from a monthly Rs 3,000 under Jagan to Rs 4,000 per month.
Despite what the Naidu government calls a “dire financial situation” in Andhra Pradesh, it has a compulsion to satisfy the electorate by bringing its promises to fruition — a situation similar to that of Revanth Reddy’s government in the other Telugu state.
The Abhaya-hastham or ‘Congress Guarantee Card’ promises of the Revanth Reddy government, armed with which it swept to power in neighbouring Telangana in December 2023, seem to have inspired some of the TDP-JSP promises such as free bus travel and financial aid to farmers and women.
Much like the Naidu government, the Revanth Reddy government, after assuming power, claimed in a white paper that the previous K. Chandrasekhar Rao government left the state — smaller in area and population than AP — with a Rs 6,71,757 crore debt. But the Telangana CM, unlike his counterpart, started rolling out the promises soon.
Within two days of assuming the CM seat, Reddy launched free travel for women from the state assembly premises on 9 December — Sonia Gandhi’s birthday. Women across the state are now availing of the scheme, with a “zero ticket”, issued by the government without any charge on the production of an Aadhaar card. Reddy also moved ahead with Gruha Jyothi, providing 200 units of free power per month per household. He also arranged Rs 31,000 crore to waive all farm loans of up to Rs two lakh. Deputy CM and FM Bhatti Vikramarka said the promise was achieved “despite the major financial challenges.”
Discussing why the timelines of implementing promises have been different, Professor D.A.R. Subrahmanyam, chairman of Guntur-based Navyandhra Intellectual Forum, said, “True, both Naidu and Reddy have inherited bankrupt governments. But, the pressure on Reddy to prove himself, added to the pressure exerted by Opposition BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi), is quite heavy. On the other hand, Naidu is comparatively better off, given the weak opposition that the YSRCP is reduced to.”
Even as the Congress government in Telangana released the third, last tranche of Rs 5,644 crore under the farm loan waiver scheme on Independence Day, BRS leaders K.T. Rama Rao and Harish Rao are accusing Reddy of cheating voters by leaving out many farmers.
In AP, several prominent YSRCP leaders, including Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, and Y.V. Subba Reddy, have reportedly been politically inactive after the election setback. Meanwhile, Jagan himself goes on frequent visits to his Bengaluru home.
“Naidu is showing dreary state finances as a boogey to buy time, aware that AP people will also wait some time before talking about poll promises, demanding delivery,” Subrahmanyam said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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