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Revanth Reddy, the newly anointed Telangana Chief Minister, faces a host of challenges — both political and financial — from the get-go. With at least 4-5 heavyweights in his party eyeing the top slot for themselves, he must get down to the task of fulfilling the party’s six poll guarantees with near-empty coffers.
The wafer-thin margin afforded by the Congress party’s 64-seat victory in a House of 119, further makes it a tightrope walk for him.
Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Uttam Kumar Reddy, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy and D Sreedhar Babu — who consider themselves party ‘insiders’ — have openly opposed his elevation to the CM post, branding him as a paratrooper. (Revanth Reddy had hopped over from the Telugu Desam Party in 2017 and eventually rose to become the state-level or Pradesh Congress Committee President in 2021.)
While the party high command may have mollified his rivals for now, particularly Mallu and Uttam Kumar, Revanth Reddy has his task cut out in appeasing the various competing interests within his own party. This would immediately impinge on the Cabinet formation, which cannot exceed the statutory limit of 17 ministers, or 15 per cent of the House size.
Districts (undivided) like Khammam, Warangal and Nalgonda, which gave the party nearly all of its victorious seats, will obviously expect more berths in the Cabinet.
Financial challenges
The State’s finances are not in the pink of health, with the debt burden hovering at Rs 4.5-lakh crore. In the run-up to the elections, the Congress had promised to increase the annual Rythu Bandhu benefit to Rs 15,000 an acre from Rs 10,000 at present. This alone would increase the financial burden by Rs 6,000 crore.
The new government faces the added expense of disbursing the assistance to the nearly 17 lakh tenant farmers who were excluded by the BRS government from the scheme.
The Congress also promised to increase pension slabs and provide financial assistance of Rs 12,000 to agricultural labourers. It announced the Mahalakshmi scheme to provide all women a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 ; gas cylinders at Rs 500 apiece; and free bus rides for women in State Road Transport Corporation buses.
Over and above these six guarantees, it promised to write off farm loans of up to Rs 2 lakh, which calls for huge financial resources.
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