Neta Natter | Congress rides on the hope of Six Guarantees

For the Congress in Telangana state, it is time for hoping that the old Telugu adage of ‘aaru nooru aina, nooru aaru aina (whether six turns into a hundred, or a hundred become six)’ would be a harbinger of better times. With Assembly elections now practically around the corner, the Congress hopes that its Six Guarantees to the people will help it get 100 seats, or at least help it cross the 60 seat mark in the 119-member House so it can form government. One Congress leader said the old Telugu saying does have merit and said the hope was they could go with their six promises to 100 seats, while the BRS will go down from its 100 to six seats. Elections in the end, is a game of numbers for the parties in the fray and hope can spring sometimes from uncommon corners.

When crossovers don’t matter

The BJP which has been struggling for a while, faced yet another embarrassment when its manifesto committee chairman G. Vivek Venkatswamy quit the party and crossed over to the Congress. That doesn’t matter, people come people go, was the official stand taken by the BJP on his leaving, just as it was when Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who amidst huge fanfare quit the Congress, joined the BJP, contested Munugode bypoll, lost it to the BRS, and preceded Vivek into the Congress. “We have our manifesto in the works and the chairman of the committee leaving won’t make a difference,” top BJP leader said.