At a time when the farmers across the state are waiting early for Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy to roll out the YSR Rythu Bharosa, a monetary benefit, the beleaguered TDP, which is desperately looking for issues for its own survival, found caste angle in the scheme.
TDP senior leader Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, tried to nail the scheme, particularly in the eligibility criteria fixed by the government to receive the monetary benefit.
The farmers, except the employees or retired employees and elected leaders, are eligible to receive Rs 12,500 annual monetary benefit from the government towards crop investment.
Among the tenant farmers, the government had decided to give this benefit only to those from the SC, ST, BC and Minority communities, as they deserve a helping hand more than others.
The TDP leader found this categorisation as discriminatory and even predicted that this divide would lead to social unrest in the villages.
He fears that tenant farmers from other castes would develop grudge against the farmers from these communities which, according to him, would lead to social unrest.
Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar, who failed to make it to the Cabinet during the TDP regime all through, only due to caste equations, and is a victim of his own party’s caste politics, found that the present government was dividing the farmers on caste basis.
It looks like the TDP is not comfortable with the Rythu Bharosa scheme, particularly in the backdrop of its own failure to help the farmers in the form of loan waiver in the last five years.
The TDP leadership is feeling the pinch, from the farmers, who are happy with Jaganmohan Reddy, rolling out the election promise in the first five months of his government, unlike the TDP which could not fulfil loan waiver in five years.