Telangana election results: Public spending helped TRS romp back to power

The TRS will hike reservation for minorities from the current 7 % to 12 % in education and jobs.

It is not hard to work out why the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) romped back to power in the country’s youngest state — the main reason is public spending.

According to the results at the time of going to print, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s TRS had won 60 seats in the 118-seat Assembly, and were leading in 28 more. Congress had won 13 and was leading in six, and the Bharatiya Janata Party had won one seat.

Rao, popularly known as KCR, dedicated the victory to the people of the state, and said he was confident of the state playing a bigger role at the national level. 

“We dedicate this victory to the people of Telangana,” he said, adding: “We are going to play a very crucial role in the national politics.”

Experts, however, said the people of Telangana had rewarded KCR for his public spending.

From the Rythu Bandhu scheme, which provides farmers an annual income of Rs8,000 despite the size of their holding, to a virtually free insurance for tillers that gives their next of kin Rs500,000 on their death, to 24x7 free electricity in agricultural areas — all this contributed to his victory.

Sources said in Telangana under the TRS, the state took care of you from the cradle to the grave.

If you get married and don’t earn a certain amount, you get a Shaadi Mubarak or Kalyana Laskhmi grant of Rs100,000. Now that TRS is back in power, this would be increased to Rs150,000.

If you are registered for a home, you will get a one-bedroom flat; a two-bedroom one if you are willing to shell out a little.

Mothers who opt for an institutional, normal delivery at government hospitals get Rs13,000 if the newborn is male and Rs15,000 if the infant is female. Moreover, she gets a KCR kit — to help young mothers through the initial weeks.

There are government schools, and even some residential ones where the state bears the entire cost of housing, education, and food.

Now that they are back in power, more sops are likely. The TRS will hike reservation for minorities from the current 7 per cent to 12 per cent in education and jobs.  

Higher education will be another propriety area, as is taking drinking water to every household. The second project is in its last leg.