Hyderabad: Chief minister A Revanth Reddy-led Congress govt will complete its first year in office on Dec 7 and, contrary to prophecies that it may not last long, people of Telangana saw a stable govt.
Though the Congress govt has managed to negotiate the financial hurdles and opposition bouncers to implement several of its 12 promises that fall under the six guarantees, the ride has not been smooth in light of the huge debt burden it inherited. Nevertheless, political observers said implementation of the Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver, amounting to Rs 21,000 crore, has been its crowning achievement in the first year despite the fund crunch. Moreover, outside the six guarantees, it has also been able to implement several other promises.
The govt, which has faced stiff resistance from BRS and BJP over some of its major plans such as Musi rejuvenation and HYDRAA, has also shown flexibility of approach. For instance, after protest at Lagacherla over a Pharma village due to pollution concerns, the govt decided to change it to an industrial/textile project as per demands of a section of farmers.
Soon after assuming power, CM Revanth had set the tone to break from BRS' perceived exclusive rule by demolishing the barricades outside erstwhile ‘Pragathi Bhavan', which had become a symbol of a barrier between the people and K Chandrasekhar Rao govt. The Congress govt promised to usher in a pro-poor ‘praja palana and Indiramma Rajyam'.
But with the one-year honeymoon period over, political analysts warned that expectations will be more from the people and the govt will also have to face an aggressive BRS and BJP who have never lost an opportunity to remind it of its promises.
A debt burden of Rs 7 lakh crore left by the previous BRS govt was never going to make the Congress govt's work easy as far as implementation of its promises was concerned. And though Revanth recently commented on how neither financial experts nor then CM KCR or his finance ministers (Eatala Rajender and Harish Rao) ever warned people about the huge debt burden, political observers said the Congress govt will not be able to hide behind that for long as public patience would soon run thin.
"The Congress govt needs to pull up its socks to implement its promises. People will be eager to see welfare schemes being implemented at least in the second year. We will get some indication of people's perception of Congress govt's performance from the results of rural and urban local body polls to be held next year," said political analyst S Ramakrishna.
Apart from its promises, the Congress govt has been politically trying to strengthen itself. The number of defections of MLAs and leaders from other parties has given the govt as well the party certain heft in assembly as well as in various constituencies.
The govt has also been pro-active in looking at projects of the previous BRS govt. The ongoing inquiries into Kaleshwaram, power purchase agreements and other issues have the potential to change the political situation in Telangana.