Dissenting voices in KCR’s turf point to anti-incumbency in Telangana, but Congress ‘missing on ground’

At Sivar Venkatapur in CM's Gajwel consituency, some voters say they want to see 'what others like Congress have to offer'. But they are largely unaware of party's pre-poll activities.

At Sivar Venkatapur in KCR's Gajwel assembly constituency | By special arrangement

Gajwel, Vemulawada (Telangana): Sivar Venkatapur, a village located 65 km north of Hyderabad in Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR’s) Gajwel assembly constituency, has seen a transformation in the past decade since Telangana got statehood.

It has a wide, pucca road running through it. A small canal from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government-built Kondapochamma reservoir irrigates the village’s fields, Putta Narsimhulu, a local leader of the state’s ruling BRS and husband of sarpanch Putta Manjula, told ThePrint.

He also mentioned KCR’s other assistances for the village, such as free 2BHK houses for the needy to funds allocation for an underground drainage system.

“We get ample piped drinking water twice a day. The supply was once a day for a short time before Telangana’s formation (in 2014),” said Gullapalli Swetha, 30, who runs a kirana kiosk in the village of about 220 households. Swetha is from the community of Goud, a backward caste traditionally engaged in toddy-tapping.

Swetha was referring to the benefit under Mission Bhagiratha, the Telangana government’s tapped drinking water scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from nearby Komatibanda in August 2016, when the CM and PM were seen as friends.

Korivi Chandraiah, 65, another resident, said he was getting Rs 2,000 per month as old age pension from the state government while his wheelchair-bound son Orujaiah was handed Rs 4,000 per month.

All the landowning farmers in the village get an annual Rs 10,000 per acre under Rythu Bandhu scheme, a farm input incentive brought in by KCR ahead of the 2018 state polls which was seen as a “game-changer” that reinstated him in the CM’s chair that year.

Yet, not everyone in the village is promising their vote next month to KCR.

“I am not committing my vote to BRS or anyone yet. Let us see what others like the Congress have to offer,” Bakki Lakshmi of the goat-rearing Kuruma community told ThePrint, while a woman sitting beside her nodded in approval.

Telangana votes on 30 November, and counting will take place on 3 December.

Sivar Venkatapur with 748 votes is represented in the Telangana assembly by KCR, the Gajwel MLA for two terms now. The villagers are unsure if he will continue to be their legislator as the CM is this time contesting from Kamareddy constituency too.

Almost everyone in Sivar Venkatapur is a beneficiary of some scheme, programme of chief minister KCR, who is their constituency Gajwel MLA, but not everyone is committing their vote to BRS | By special arrangement

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not a name one hears often here, but KCR is facing his one-time lieutenant, former BRS minister Eatala Rajender, who is the BJP candidate, in the Gajwel battle.

In Vemulawada constituency, famous for the Raja Rajeshwara Swamy temple, about 100 km away from KCR’s farmhouse Guggilla Mallesham, a farmer-turned-auto driver made his dissatisfaction with the KCR government more explicit.

“Even after repeated requests, our family has not been given the ration card. Why should I give my vote to KCR, what have I got from him?” Mallesham said, revealing his inclination towards the Congress.

Namala Anjaiah and Nagula Rayasam, sipping tea at a stall at the crossroads leading to the famed Rajanna temple, agreed with Mallesham’s anguish.

They have no major grouse of their own against the BRS, with Namala’s family getting Rs 2,000 monthly pension and also benefits under the Rythu-Bandhu scheme, but said that people “are considering an alternative, a change after 10 years of KCR-BRS rule.”

‘Congress missing in action’

While some voters are apparently looking for a change, they pointed out that “missing in action on the ground when it should be capitalising on the palpable anti-incumbency” was the main opposition Congress.

“There is a certain anti-incumbency in the state. But is the Congress deserving of these benefit votes is the question. It needs to explain its inaction and indifference to the looting of the state’s resources all these years. Its poll assurances too are non-sustainable,” said professor K. Purushotham Reddy, a political scientist. “It’s a bit early. We have to see how this anti-incumbency vote will manifest.”

In Gajwel, or Vemulawada and adjacent assembly segments that ThePrint visited, voters seemed to be connecting with senior Congress leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi more than the Telangana party unit chief Revanth Reddy.

They were, however, largely unaware of the assurances under six heads that the Gandhis made to the Telangana public in their inaugural election rally named “Vijaya Bheri” near Hyderabad last month.

The promises include Rs 4,000 monthly pensions instead of the current Rs 2000, house-site and Rs 5 lakh assistance to the houseless, annual Rs 15,000 Rythu Bharosa in place of Rs 10,000 Rythu Bandhu, Rs 2,500 per month cash for women, Rs 500 gas cylinder and Rs 5 lakh basket for student education.

Seeking to repeat its recent electoral success in Karnataka, a victory that boosted the Congress leader-cadre morale in Telangana so much that the exodus to the BRS and BJP reversed, the party high command has further promised 200 units of free power monthly for households, and free travel for women in state buses.

“Yes, we have to step up our campaign, go intensely into the public with our commitments,” Madhu Goud Yaskhi, Telangana Congress campaign committee chairman, told ThePrint.

While KCR had announced the BRS candidates list two months ago in August, giving a jumpstart to the party, the Congress’s second list only came out Friday.

Yaskhi, in fray from the LB Nagar constituency in Hyderabad, is one among the 45 names in the list. The party is yet to announce candidates for the remaining 19 seats.

The BRS, meanwhile, expressed confidence about retaining power and gaining a third term.

BRS legislator K Kavitha told ThePrint that the BJP was out. “The Congress is a factor in Telangana but will remain our distant principal opponent.”

“The BRS will come back to power with more seats and greater numbers and the Congress will sit in the opposition,” said Kavitha, KCR’s daughter.

The BRS supremo has released a manifesto promising Rythu Bandhu benefit hike in phases to Rs 16,000 per acre, gradual hike of pensions to Rs 5,000, Rs 5 lakh under KCR Bheema-Prati Intiki Dheema (insurance) for the needy, gas cylinders for Rs 400, Rs 3,000 financial help to eligible women, Arogyasri health scheme limit hike to Rs 15 lakh and housing sites for the poorer sections.

The Congress, meanwhile, started the second phase of Vijaya Bheri bus yatra covering south-west Telangana from Tandur Saturday with Karnataka deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar. AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge led the campaign Sunday. Rahul Gandhi is participating in the yatra, rallies on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The yatra was launched by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi from the 13th century architectural marvel Ramappa temple in Mulug on 18 October and covered parts of central Telangana.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)