Telangana Assembly elections 2023 can be summed up in one hyphenated word: anti-incumbency. With polling at all 119 constituencies completed on Thursday, November 30, and results due on Sunday, several exit polls have predicted a major victory for the Congress in the state.
While the Congress has been vociferously campaigning for over a year now, starting from Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which covered the state in November 2022, what struck out primarily this election was a palpable anti-incumbency sentiment. The BRS faced allegations of corruption, mismanagement of funds, and trying to acquire land by subverting the law. On their end, the BRS retaliated by stating that despite having had several years to govern India, the Congress party failed miserably. “We achieved Telangana despite the Congress party,” BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR), son of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, remarked time and again.
In October, when just a month left for Telangana’s residents to cast their votes, the BRS suffered a major blow. The piers at Medigadda (Lakshmi) barrage, one of the three main barrages of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS) sank on October 21. Rahul Gandhi did an aerial survey and attacked the BRS alleging that the Rs 1 lakh crore project, touted by BRS as the “largest lift irrigation scheme in the world”, was rife with irregularities. Several Opposition leaders from the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana, visited the Medigadda barrage and questioned the quality of construction. The Congress even released a caricature with BRS’ four major faces (members of the Kalvakuntla family), calling Kaleshwaram BRS’ personal ATM.
The accusations did not stop there. As momentum for Congress picked up, the party’s leaders started poking holes in several of the BRS’ welfare schemes. Telangana Congress chief Revanth Reddy’s speeches were peppered primarily with two statements: one, that BRS was the enemy of Telangana, and two, that they had betrayed the sentiments of Telangana’s martyrs who gave up their lives for statehood. Many of his speeches started with the mention of Srikantha Chary, the first person who died by suicide during the statehood agitation in 2009.
But the Telangana sentiment has evolved since the state’s formation nine and a half years ago. People across the state have questioned the three key promises of the statehood: nidhulu, neelu, niyamakalu – funds, water and jobs – with jobs taking the centre stage. Several protests alleging that there weren’t sufficient jobs in the state broke out over the last few years. KTR met several Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) aspirants and assured them that a day after forming government, on December 4, vacancies and all other TSPSC issues would be resolved. He said that the BRS government would reform TSPSC, release the job calendar, increase Group-II posts, and expedite the process of conducting pending recruitment exams.
Even the flagship schemes of the BRS government: such as Dalita Bandhu, Dignity Housing Scheme, and Rythu Bandhu have been mired in accusations of either corruption or favouritism. Over the last several years, protests have broken out against the government’s mismanagement of these schemes. At a rally which witnessed major support in August 2023, Telangana BJP chief Kishan Reddy questioned the government’s delay in allotting houses to the beneficiaries of the Dignity Housing Scheme.
The Dharani portal, Telangana government’s digitised land management system, has come under such serious criticism that both the Opposition Congress and BJP vowed in their manifestos to do away with the portal, claiming it facilitated land grabbing.
But issues of public interest alone hardly governed this election. The BRS, the Congress, and the BJP have, as has been practice, accused each other of being the B-Team of another party. Starting with Rahul Gandhi, several Congress leaders have accused the BRS of being in cahoots with the BJP, while on their end the BRS and its ally AIMIM have accused the Congress of benefitting from the BJP. Similarly, the BJP has said that despite showmanship, the BRS and Congress were secretly in cahoots.
The political fighting aside, the state elections have mostly been a two-party race between the BRS and the Congress. The AIMIM has maintained status quo in their friendship with the BRS, and is campaigning for nine constituencies in Hyderabad. Aside from select candidates like Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender – BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao’s (KCR) protege from a long time ago – and few others such as Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay and Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh, BJP had to rely on national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sustenance in this campaign.
Each of the three main faces of the BRS, Congress, and BJP contested from two constituencies this election. KCR contested from Kamareddy alongside his home constituency of Gajwel. After initially dubbing KCR’s move a sign of weakness, Revanth Reddy announced soon after that he would contest not just from his home turf of Kodangal but also Kamareddy. After the high stakes bypoll in Huzurabad, BJP MLA Eatala Rajender also decided to contest from Gajwel.
What manifestos promised
In its manifesto, the Congress promised to increase the reservations for Backward Class (BC) communities in the state after undertaking a caste census if it comes to power. It also reiterated its six guarantees, introduced well before the manifesto, vowing to provide free bus passes and monthly financial assistance to women, besides 200 units of free electricity for every household. The party also promised LPG gas cylinders for Rs 500. Under their Rythu Bharosa guarantee, the party said farmers and tenant farmers will be given Rs 15,000 annually and Rs 12,000 to agricultural labourers. The guarantee also includes a Rs 500 bonus for paddy crops. Congress’ Indiramma Indlu Guarantee promises house sites and Rs 5 lakhs to those without houses. It added that Telangana movement fighters will receive 250 sq yards plots.
BRS, apart from announcing some new schemes, mostly pushed the envelope of the already existing schemes in its manifesto. The party promised a massive hike of financial assistance for land-owning farmers under the state’s flagship Rythu Bandhu scheme, if elected to power a third time. The party also pitched the ‘Sowbhagya Lakshmi’ scheme for eligible poor women with Rs 3,000 per month as assistance, besides promising to build one lakh two-bedroom (2BHK) houses in Hyderabad for the poor under the state’s ‘2BHK Dignity Housing’ scheme.
The BJP manifesto, on the other hand, sought to ‘reset the narrative of Telangana's history’. The party pitched to officially mark August 27, the date of the Bairanpally massacre, as the Razakar Horrors Remembrance Day. It also reiterated its stand on celebrating the date of Hyderabad state’s annexation, September 17, as Hyderabad Liberation Day, besides promising to deport all Rohingyas and illegal immigrants and prevent “misuse” of Aadhaar and passports.
BRS contested all 119 seats in Telangana, while the Congress contested in 118 and allocated the Kothagudem segment to its ally Communist Party of India. The BJP contested in 111 seats, and its ally Jana Sena Party got the remaining seats.
The state’s voter turnout dropped by three per cent this year, standing at 64.14%. Polling was held in 35,655 stations, of which 10,969 stations were identified as critical.
Read more of TNM's election stories here: