Telangana’s ruling party Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has ignored Muslims in its manifesto while the Congress party is likely to make some promises to win the community’s support for next month’s assembly elections.
The manifesto released by BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on October 16 has just a single line about minorities – Minority welfare will be increased.
The lack of any specific announcement for minorities has disappointed the Muslim community, which had overwhelmingly backed TRS (now BRS) in 2014 and 2018 elections.
The manifesto has apparently sent a message that KCR’s party takes Muslim support for granted.
With more than a month to go for the elections and Congress party marching ahead to catch up with the ruling party, KCR faces a challenge in scoring a hat-trick as chief minister.
The BRS has been projecting its success in maintaining peace and law and order as a key achievement during the last nine years. Barring the communal violence in Bhainsa town of Nirmal district, the state has been free from communal riots. At almost every public meeting, KCR and other leaders of BRS mention how they were successful in preserving ‘Ganga Jamuni Tehzeeb’ in Hyderabad and the rest of the state.
Increasing the budget for minority welfare to Rs.2,000 crore and setting up of minority residential schools are claimed to be the major steps taken by the KCR government during the last two terms. Under the Shadi Mubarak scheme, the government is providing financial assistance of Rs.1 lakh for marriage of poor Muslim girls. The government is also extending financial help to minority students for overseas education. A few months ago, it announced a scheme to provide Rs.1 lakh each for minority youth for self-employment.
However, the BRS government has often come under criticism for not releasing total funds allocated in the budget for minority welfare and lack of proper implementation of schemes. The ruling party also faces criticism for doing nothing all these years to implement its promise of enhancing reservation for Muslims to 12 per cent from present four per cent in government jobs and education.
KCR’s party enjoys total support of its friendly party Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM). Its president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has already appealed to Muslims to back MIM in constituencies where it is fielding candidates and vote for BRS in the remaining constituencies.
MIM is not likely to contest more than 7-8 seats, all in Hyderabad. The party has seven MLAs in the 119-member assembly. It is the second largest party in the assembly after BRS.
Asaduddin Owaisi is of the view that despite some shortcomings, the overall picture of BRS rule from the Muslim perspective has been satisfactory. A bitter critic of both BJP and Congress, he is worried that if Congress comes to power, the cycle of communal riots and curfew may return to Hyderabad.
The MIM leaders have been targeting state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy over his alleged RSS background. Revanth Reddy admits that he was with ABVP in the past but he denies any links with the RSS.
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