Can DK Shivakumar, freebies secure Telangana for Congress?

New Delhi: With most pre-poll surveys predicting a close contest in Telangana, the Congress has deployed its most trusted and effective political strategist, DK Shivakumar, to secure victory in the crucial southern state.

Confident after winning the crucial Karnataka Assembly polls, the credit for which largely rests with Shivakumar, Congress has now decided to give a major role to the Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister in Telangana as well.

Sources stated that the Congress also wants to implement its successful Karnataka model, of promising freebies, funding and fielding winnable candidates, to replicate its victory in Telangana.

The grand old party is now focused on winning Telangana and Shivakumar is expected to be in charge of strategy and ensure proper funding of party candidates in the forthcoming polls. He has apparently been given a free hand in the political strategic decision-making process by the grand old party, sources added. Telangana is scheduled to go for polls on November 30 and the results will be declared on December 3.

Meanwhile, the Congress has already promised a slew of freebies if it is elected to power in Telangana. It has promised Rs 15,000 annually to farmers, Rs 12,000 annually to agricultural labourers, and 200 units of free electricity each month to all households.

Landless to be provided house sites and Rs 5 lakh, a monthly pension scheme for the unemployed and Rs 10 lakh as part of Rajiv Arogyasri insurance are other promises.

The importance that the Congress attaches with winning Telangana can be gauged from the fact that its newly constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) held its first meeting in the poll-bound state’s capital Hyderabad in September.  Here, the party also announced a set of "guarantees" and “freebies” aimed at targeting the voters who are easily swayed by these doles. These promises had paid the grand old party rich dividends in Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka.

After the Karnataka poll victory, the Congress has been infused with a new-found confidence and has begun eyeing expansion in Telangana ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. With 17 Lok Sabha seats, Telangana is an important part of the plan to secure additional seats for the grand old party, which is aiming to dislodge the Bharatiya Janata Party from the Centre in 2024.

There is a sense that the BJP is likely to find it very difficult to secure a victory in the forthcoming assembly polls in the major states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. The Congress is desperately trying to repeat the 2018-like embarrassment for the BJP where the saffron front was unable to form a government in any of these states.

The Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Telangana are being treated by political parties as the semifinal for the 2024 general elections.

With just a few months to go for these crucial polls, the Congress is now completely focused on ensuring a victory in Telangana. If it is able to secure a victory by dislodging the K Chandrashekar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the Congress would be able to expand its southern footprint ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. And also enthuses its leaders and cadre with a hope that the grand old party can lead the INDIA bloc’s assault against Narendra Modi’s Prime Ministerial electoral campaign next year.