Hyderabad: From farm loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh to unemployment allowance and from doubling security pensions to free cows, laptops and bicycles, major political parties in debt-ridden Telangana are promising the moon to the voters.

The main contenders of power have made a whole lot of promises like one lakh jobs in first year, hiking retirement age of government employees from 58 years to 61 years, financial assistance for the marriage of poor girls and grants for women self-help groups.

India’s youngest state may be under a huge burden of public debts but this has not deterred the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Congress-led People’s Front and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from promising all sorts of freebies to voters for December 7 elections to the Telangana Assembly.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao told the Assembly in March that the state’s debts stood at Rs 1.42 lakh crore. The opposition parties, however, claimed during the poll campaign that this was Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

The TRS, which was already under fire from the opposition for not fulfilling most of the promises made in 2014, was the last party to release its manifesto. KCR released the document at an election rally in Hyderabad on Sunday.

KCR has been claiming that Telangana is number one in the country in terms of welfare. The TRS government claims to be spending a whopping Rs 40,000 crore annually on social welfare pensions and other welfare schemes.

The government is spending Rs 13,000 crore a year on pensions alone but with all the main parties promising to hike the pension amount, it is estimated that the allocation will have to be doubled.

The parties have vied with each other in promising the sops to the farm sector. If TRS promised farm loan waiver up to Rs 1 lakh, both the Congress and BJP promised loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakh.

The ruling party also assured that financial assistance to farmers as input subsidy under ‘Rythu Bandhu’ scheme will be increased from Rs 8,000 per acre per year to Rs 10,000.

The Congress promised Market Intervention Fund of Rs 5,000 crore and minimum guaranteed prices for 17 major crops.

The BJP has promised free bore-well or well or pump set for each farmer. BJP’s promises also include distribution of one lakh cows annually during festivals, free laptops for all students pursuing under-graduate courses and free cycles to all girl-students from class 7 to 10.

In addition to creation of one lakh jobs in the first year, the Congress promised unemployment allowance of Rs 3,000 per month to jobless youth. The TRS assured that every unemployed youth will get a dole of Rs 3,016 per month while the BJP promised unemployed stipend of Rs 3,116.

The Congress promised financial assistance of Rs 1,50,116 for the marriage of poor girls against Rs 100,116 being provided by the TRS government under ‘Kalyan Lakshmi’ scheme. The BJP said each girl will get Rs 1 lakh cash and one tola of gold at the time of marriage.

The Congress said that all Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) will be given a grant of Rs 1 lakh each. Each SHG will be permitted to get a bank loan of Rs 10 lakh, for which the interest will be paid by the government.

The BJP declared interest free loans of Rs 5 lakh to women SHGs. They will also get free smart phones.

The Congress has pledged free treatment up to Rs 5 Lakh for all diseases under ‘Araogyasri’. A 20-30 bed hospital will be built in each ‘mandal’ (block).

The BJP assured Rs 5 crore health insurance cover for all under Ayushman Bharat Yojna and generic medicines in all mandals.

The TRS promised that double bed-room housing scheme for poor will continue and those who own plots will be provided financial assistance of Rs 5-6 lakh to build the house.

The Congress also promised Rs 5 lakh assistance. The BJP promised houses for all eligible people by 2022 and till then, the government would give Rs 5,000 rent every month.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has been getting some negative reports over its prospects in the Friday’s assembly elections in the state, is said to be banking heavily on exploiting Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s campaign in Telangana, rather than propagating its own manifesto.

The party leaders are hopeful that Naidu’s campaign would turn advantageous to the TRS in the elections, as they want to create an impression among the people that it is Naidu who is the actual force behind the Congress party and the Maha Kootami and he wants to gain control over the Telangana by proxy.

That is precisely why every leader – from TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao to his party candidates in the elections – are talking about the dangers of Naidu allying with the Congress party.

“Naidu was the stumbling block in the formation of Telangana and he tried to stop separate statehood till last minute. In fact, Telangana would have achieved statehood almost 18 years ago, had Naidu not come in its way,” TRS senior leader and irrigation minister T Harish Rao said on Monday.

He said the BJP in its Kakinada meeting had resolved one vote two states during 1999 elections, but the TDP president had asked its ally BJP not to give Telangana when BJP came to power at Center in the past.

He quoted BJP senior leaders L K Advani and Yaswanth Sinha who had openly stated that they were not giving Telangana as its ally TDP had opposed it.

Harish explained in detail how Mr. Naidu is averse in forming Telangana from the beginning and said he has banned the word “Telangana” from his dictionary.

Harish asked all the Telanganites who have participated in ‘sakala janula samme’ including employees, students, intellectuals, human right activists to protect Telangana from the Congress as well as TDP.

He reminded them, how Congress party for the sake of power had not agreed for bifurcation of the state from 1956.

He said the grand alliance comprised only Congress and TDP, but not TJS and CPI as the latter were completely sidelined.

“The condition of Kodandaram is like fish out of water,” he commented.

The ongoing elections to Telangana assembly have created tense moments to all political parties in the state, as it has become extremely difficult for them to read the pulse of the voters.The pre-election surveys being conducted by various agencies are adding to the confusion as they are predicting different outcomes.

While some surveys have predicted that the TRS would retain power with just around the absolute majority, others say the Maha Kootami will win comfortable majority restricting the TRS to less than 40 seats.

Amidst all these, the latest announcement by former Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal, who has earned the title of Andhra Octopus for his near accurate election predictions in the past, that independents will win eight to 10 seats, created tension in the main political rivals, indicating that the Telangana elections are heading towards a photo finish.

But not many people are aware that, as Lagadapati has not come out in the open, his survey has also predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party is going to spring surprises in the Telangana elections.

According to sources, Lagadapati has predicted that the BJP will also win eight seats – improving its tally from five seats last year.

“The BJP won all its five seats in Hyderabad, but this time it might lose a couple of seats in the city. But in rest of Telangana, it will improve and take the total tally to eight,” sources quoting his survey said.

It would mean the TRS and the Maha Kootami would be fighting only in 104 seats, if one were to take out seven seats of the MIM and eight of the BJP.

If the TRS falls short of a few seats of majority, it will be interesting to see whether party president K Chandrasekhar Rao will take the support of the BJP or the MIM to form the next government.

YSR Congress party president and leader of opposition in Andhra Pradesh has been toiling day and night by undertaking padayatra for over a year, but his media house Sakshi, which is supposed to be the backbone of his campaign, seems to be in a chaotic state without any proper control.

Last week, a report that appeared as a banner story in the inside pages of Sakshi stunned everybody.

The headline says: “Jaganku Samarthatha Ledu” (Jagan is inefficient).

It is about a public rally addressed by Jana Sena Party president and power star Pawan Kalyan at Ravulapalem in East Godavari district, in which he made some strong comments against Jagan and his alleged corruption.

While other mainstream pro-Telugu Desam Party newspapers like Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy did not give much coverage to Pawan rally as he also attacked TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, Sakshi gave it a lot of prominence and that too, to his comments against Jagan, making them a big headline.

Obviously, the report shocked the YSRC leaders, workers and also Jagan’s fans. They brought it to the notice of the YSRC president and asked him what actually was happening in his media house.

“How can your own newspaper carry a negative report on you and call you inefficient? What message does it send across the people?” they asked Jagan, who is presently touring Srikakulam district.

And that angered Jagan, who immediately enquired with Sakshi editorial team and pulled up the editorial heads.

It is a different matter that the sub-editor who carried the report was sacked and the edition in-charge was transferred to other place.

But it clearly shows lack of a professional team management in Sakshi!