Bharat Rashtra Samithi Clashes with Congress Over Farmers’ Welfare Scheme

The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), the ruling party in Telangana, on Monday reacted strongly to the objections raised by the Congress regarding the disbursement of funds under the Rythy Bandhu scheme.

Calling it dirty politics of Congress, member of the Telangana Legislative Council and daughter of Telangana State Chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao (popularly known as KCR), K. Kavitha said that the scheme was not an electoral promise and it is not a new programme launched with elections in mind.

“Congress has been complaining about the Rythy Bandhu scheme time and again. It is not a scheme related to elections at all, but an ongoing program. Congress is threatened that the vote bank of farmers is with BRS, and it is trying to trouble Telangana farmers. This will work against Congress,” Kavitha told Sputnik India.

Echoing the views of Kavitha, BRS spokesperson Putta Vishnuvardhan Reddy said that Congress is well aware that farmers are the strongest vote bank of BRS and with elections just three days away it was not able to convince farmers to vote for them so they asked the ECI to stall the disbursements.

“The Rythu Bandhu scheme was the brainchild of Telangana State Chief KCR and it even inspired the federal government to come up with Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (a farmers’ welfare scheme),” Reddy told Sputnik India while praising the scheme.

Questioning the intentions of Congress, the BRS spokesperson said that Congress has raised objections about the ongoing scheme in the state but not about the disbursements made under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN) which were made on 15 November.

“The model code of conduct was in place in Telangana then also. This shows that Congress and BJP are working together in order to restrict KCR from serving the people of the state. Also, Congress doesn’t want that KCR to come out of Telangana, make foray into Maharashtra and other parts of the country and impact the national politics and even the upcoming Parliamentary polls. It is a larger part of the conspiracy,” Reddy stated.

Accusing Congress of being anti-farmers, he said that party’s state unit president Anumula Revanth Reddy had said last week that only three hours of power is enough for the farmers while KCR-led Telangana state government is already giving 24-hours power supply to the famers.

“Former state unit president Uttam Kumar Reddy had also termed the Rythu Bandhu scheme as waste of tax-payers money. So the policy and the thought process of Congress is anti-farmer and they will have to face the wrath of the farmer,” the BRS politician said.

The BRS has also written a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to reconsider its order as the scheme is in the interest of farmers.

In the letter accessed by Sputnik India, the BRS also gave clarification about the statement made by Finance Minister in the state government T. Harish Rao.

“The ground that the disbursement was stopped as T. Harish Rao, Ministry of Finance, Government of Telangana, has allegedly violated the condition of order dt. 25.11.2023, with due respect to your authority is wrongly placed,” the letter read.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi

The letter further clarified that T. Harish Rao has not made any such comment which is in violation of the order dt 25.11.2023 rather he merely thanked ECI for allowing the disbursement of scheme.

The orders of the ECI came after Congress requested the Chief Election Commissioner to impose restrictions on the BRS, not to mention the disbursement of Rythu Bandhu amount in their poll campaign.

In its letter, the poll body had said “there shall be no disbursement under the Scheme till the Model Code of Conduct in the State of Telangana ceases to apply in all its forms”.

Notably, the poll body had earlier given its nod to the state government to disburse the rabi the instalment during the model code of conduct period asking the state government not to publicise the disbursement during the poll code as part of the condition.

The elections in Telangana are slated for 30 November and the results will be out on 3 December.

Political Affairs

Income Tax Raids BRS-Turned-Congress Politician in Poll-Bound Telangana

9 November 2023, 16:42