Munugode bypoll: TRS to bank on votes of welfare scheme beneficiaries

Hyderabad: For the upcoming Munugode bypolls, the ruling TRS will rely heavily on welfare politics and highlight the achievements of its flagship schemes such as Aasara pensions, crop loan waiver and Rythu Bandhu. The strategy is also expected to add to the narrative against remark of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had said that the ‘revri (sweet)’ culture of giving sops would affect development programmes.

The ruling dispensation will be banking on securing the support of the nearly three lakh beneficiaries in the constituency, especially those from financially and socially weaker sections. Consequently, the TRS leadership has decided to organise "welfare rallies" in Munugode with the engagement of the welfare programme beneficiaries as part of a voter outreach drive.

The party has identified household-level beneficiaries of schemes. The welfare programmes that the TRS government has been implementing since 2014 have benefited 3,34,994 beneficiaries in Munugode, costing roughly Rs 10,260 crore.  

From 2014 to 2022, information on all beneficiaries of Aasara pension, crop loan waiver, Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, Kalyana Lakshmi/Shaadi Mubarak, KCR Kits, sheep distribution, dairy units, Dalit Bandhu, paddy procurement programmes, interest-free loans, and CM Relief Fund for the Munugode constituency was gathered.

Energy minister G. Jagadish Reddy, who is also in charge of the party's campaign in Nalgonda district and the Munugode byelection, told Deccan Chronicle, "We want to seek votes based on the welfare schemes and development programmes implemented by TRS government in the last eight years. The fact that approximately Rs 10,260 crore in benefits were given to three lakh beneficiaries in Munugode Assembly constituency shows how concerned and dedicated the TRS government and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao are about assisting the poor and needy.”

“We will urge the beneficiaries and their families to bless TRS in the upcoming Munugode bypoll as a token of gratitude towards CM KCR for extending welfare schemes and transferring the benefit directly into their bank accounts without any scope for any irregularities by middlemen," the minister said.

According to Jagadish Reddy, the party will release the details on money spent by the TRS government for the development of Munugode constituency.

Munugode MLA Rajgopal Reddy, who quit the Congress and the Legislative Assembly, is running a vicious campaign alleging that the TRS government stopped development and welfare programmes in Munugode seat solely because voters elected the Congress in the 2018 Assembly elections, Jagadish Reddy said.

“We will make the official data public on how Munugode people and the constituency benefitted between 2014 and 2018 when TRS represented this constituency and also between 2018 and 2022, whenit was represented by the Congress. These figures will expose the false claims of Rajgopal Reddy," Jagadish Reddy added.