With less than a day to go for the campaign in Telangana Assembly elections coming to a close, the Congress tried to attempt a coup by stalling the disbursement of Rythu Bandhu, the flagship scheme of the Telangana Government.
Rythu Bandhu is not a new scheme. In fact, the Telangana Government had already given 10 rounds of Rythu Bandhu to farmers.
On Monday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) withdrew its permission given to the Government a few days earlier to continue disbursing funds under the Rythu Bandhu.
The reason given by the ECI for pausing the financial aid to farmers was that BRS leader Harish Rao had violated the conditions for the permission by making a public announcement about the release of funds under the scheme while the model code of conduct was in force.
However it became apparent that it was the Congress which had pushed the ECI to stop the disbursal of the input subsidy, yet again.
Last month, Congress Nalgonda MP Uttam Kumar Reddy has termed the scheme as wasteful expenditure. On October 25, a delegation led by Uttam Kumar had urged the poll panel to halt the disbursement of the second installment, claiming that it would influence voters.
While the ECI had initially halted the disbursement of funds, it later allowed the BRS Government to continue its disbursal yet again on November 25.
Fretting over the decision of the ECI, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) vice-president GD Niranjan once again wrote to the ECI alleging that the BRS was using the scheme as part of its political discourse.
Niranjan claimed that Harish Rao was claiming that disbursement will be made on November 27. The ECI once again revoked the permission given to the BRS Government.
Reacting to the ECI order, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) slammed the Congress for stopping the disbursal of Rythu Bandhu.
Speaking at a rally in Shadnagar on Monday, KCR said, “It is a regular programme. Not a new programme. This is the sixth year of Rythu Bandhu disbursal. They think that if Rythu Bandhu is stopped, they will get votes. How many days can you (Congress) stop? After December 3, our Government is going to come back. From December 6 onwards we will release it happily.”
Harish Rao too said that the Congress was making all out efforts to ensure that farmers were starved of funds by repeatedly writing to the ECI to stop the release of the Yasangi installment of Rythu Bandhu. He said that before coming to power in Karnataka, the Congress had promised Rythu Bandhu to farmers but had cancelled the scheme after coming to power.
The Congress would be wary that earning the wrath of farmers would prove to be costly for the party which has been trying to get a foothold in the State for the last 10 years.