Responding to a question about Congress not announcing its candidates for the Telangana Assembly elections yet, the party’s state president Revanth Reddy on Monday, October 9, said that the announcement can be expected after the Dasara festival, which falls on October 24. Revanth said that not announcing the contestants was part of their “strategy.” He said that just because the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) announced their candidates list ahead of everyone else, they need not follow suit. The BRS party announced its list of 115 candidates to the 119-member Assembly in August.
“Politics will have strategies. And we are following those strategies. BRS has announced its candidates but has not revealed what welfare they will do for the people. We have announced our six guarantees to the people. Candidates are not our priority. The welfare we are going to offer to the people and the development which we are going to take up is our priority,” Revanth Reddy said.
While claiming that BRS was only interested in announcing their candidates and not their manifesto, he also took on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by saying that they neither had candidates nor a manifesto. “We have clearly told the people about our six guarantees. Those guarantees are our candidates,” he said. Meanwhile, the BRS has announced that it will unveil its manifesto on October 15.
The six guarantees promised by the Congress party in Telangana are – Rs 2,500 monthly financial assistance for women heads of poor households, gas cylinders at Rs 500, free travel for women in state transport buses, Rs 15,000 yearly financial assistance for farmers under the Rythu Bharosa scheme, Rs 12,000 annual incentive to agriculture labourers, a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal for paddy above the minimum support price, Rs 5 lakh for construction of houses for the poor under the Indiramma housing scheme, 200 units of free electricity to poor households, insurance cover of up to Rs 10 lakh, Rs 4,000 pension to the poor under the Cheyutha scheme, and Rs 5 lakh assistance to students from low-income backgrounds for pursuing higher studies.
Meanwhile, the election schedule for Telangana was announced on Monday. The Election Commission of India announced that voting will be held on November 30, and the results will be declared on December 3.