With No-freebie Chokehold, BJP Devising Ways to Finalise Telangana Manifesto

HYDERABAD: The Telangana state BJP is reportedly finding ways and means to follow the party policy of ‘no freebies’ while at the same time making an Assembly election manifesto that people will embrace, at the same time ensuring it is free of potential criticism from political opponents.

So far, the BRS, BJP and Congress are yet to announce their manifestoes.

The BRS is expected it announce its manifesto at a mega public meeting in Warangal on October 16, while Congress leaders are also meeting various stakeholders for the exercise.

The Congress has been upping the ante over the BRS promising to increase welfare pensions and extend the Rythu Bandhu scheme to tenant farmers.

The BJP, too, is learnt to have completed one phase of its manifesto
exercise with a task force set up by previous state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar discussing the current state of affairs of the BRS government’s performance and the BJP’s policies on various issues.

The task force comprised former TS Public Service Commission member Ch. Vittal, former MP Dr B. Narasiah Goud, former IAS officer R. Chandravadan, SC leader S. Kumar and a few other retired IAS officers and party leaders, assisted by ex-CM of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh, N. Kirankumar Reddy.

“The challenge we have is our party directive that there should be no
freebies and this is a principle the party implements across the country.

The Congress can make such promises and so can the BRS. Our manifesto will have schemes and programmes for the poor and downtrodden that are implementable. And the BJP has no plans to discontinue the existing welfare programmes and will devise better and targeted delivery of these schemes,” a BJP leader involved in the manifesto process said.

BJP leaders, addressing public meetings, have promised free education and healthcare, and implementation of an annual job calendar with timely recruitments to government jobs.

The saffron party also plans to streamline welfare programmes for BC
communities and has said that its government at the Centre is looking at ways and means to bring tenant farmers into the ambit of farmer welfare schemes.