BRS to Counter Congress on Six Poll Guarantees

The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will launch a counter-offensive against Congress' six guarantees, made by its top leadership at the Vijayabheri meeting in Tukkuguda, to people of Telangana, sources said.

The BRS, in an aggressive, campaign will not make counter-promises but will, instead, stress that the Congress’ guarantees were bogus and that they cannot be implemented due to financial constraints.

With it being almost a month since Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced candidates for 115 Assembly constituencies, BRS sources said that Rao will guide party leaders on reaching out to voters against Congress's six guarantees.

As per estimates prepared by the BRS think-tank, Congress' six guarantees would incur an expenditure of Rs 2.90 lakh crore per year, which is more than state's annual budget. The Telangana state's budget for the 2023-24 fiscal is pegged at Rs 2.77 lakh crore, with the Congress guarantees exceeding it.

Further, sources said that the



BRS is yet to ascertain the burden on the state exchequer to implement Congress promises of providing domestic LPG cylinders for Rs 500 and free travel for women in RTC buses.

With Congress leaders and workers already distributing ‘guarantee cards’ to people in Assembly constituencies and seeking votes, the ruling BRS will reach out to voters and create awareness that it would be impossible for any government to implement them.

During the 2018 Assembly polls, the BRS promised crop loan waiver of up to Rs 1 lakh for farmers, while the Congress promised up to Rs 2 lakh. But the BRS won elections with a sizeable majority and the party leadership believes that the farmers did not trust Congress's Rs 2 lakh waiver as it would be impossible to implement.

The BRS leadership is hopeful that the same situation will repeat in Assembly polls this year if its party leaders and workers effectively reach out to voters and alert them about the same.