The credibility of leaders in fulfilling their electoral promises has emerged as the central debating point even as the demand for a separate Telangana state, corruption, caste combinations and freebies offered by all the three major political parties in the fray continue to be the key poll issues with a potential to influence the outcome of the ensuing elections to Assembly and Lok Sabha in Andhra Pradesh.
The issue of credibility came to the fore with the ruling Congress dodging the Telangana issue for the past five years and the opposition Telugu Desam Party, which subscribed to the concept of “no free lunches” in the 2004 elections, doling out promises ranging from colour televisions to electronic cash transfer to the poor.
The fledgling Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), floated by film star Chiranjeevi, cannot be questioned on this front as it is entering the electoral fray for the first time.
Nevertheless, his political opponents started questioning his party’s twin planks of ‘change and social justice’ saying that the matinee idol had done nothing to transform his place of birth or volunteered any help during natural calamities though he had made millions during his career as an actor.
More than anyone else, it is TDP president, N Chandrababu Naidu, who is affected by this credibility factor. During his nine-year stint as the chief minister, Naidu reversed TDP's poll promise of imposing total prohibition in the state and altered party founder NT Rama Rao’s pet Rs 2-a-kg scheme by raising the price of the subsidised rice supplied to poor households.
In 2004, Naidu vehemently opposed free power to farmers promised by the Congress. In fact, he pointed out time and again that farming never fetches. He also opposed separate statehood to the Telangana region.
But, now the TDP leader’s current policies are completely out of tune with what he had professed when his party was in power.
Apart from various freebies, he is now offering free power not only to farmers but also to poor households.
His electoral promises include free supply of rice up to 20 kg a month to poor households, waiver of loans given to farmers, setting up of a Rs 1,000-crore market stabiliaation fund for the agriculture sector and creation of an Agriculture Development Authority.
The Congress is crying foul of Naidu’s volte-face and making it an issue in every public meeting. However, the former poster boy of reforms said there was nothing wrong in changing one's views and adopting policies that were in tune with changed situation.
Despite not taking a clear-cut stand on the Telangana issue for the past five years, the Congress continues to maintain that it is committed to the “Telangana sentiment.”
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), whose sole objective is to carve out a separate Telangana state, is not convinced and has upped its ante against the ruling party. TRS founder and president, K Chandrasekhara Rao, is leaving no opportunity to tell the people "not to believe" Congress, particularly its leader and chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.
Today, the TRS is part of Maha Kootami (grand alliance) formed by the TDP along with the CPI and the CPI-M for fighting the elections.
The two Left parties and the TRS had an alliance with the Congress in the 2004 elections, and defeated the TDP government.
Besides the credibility factor, the Congress is heavily banking on its development agenda in the current elections while the opposition alliance and PRP have been highlighting the “rampant corruption and mideeds” of the Rajasekhara Reddy government.
