Maharashtra’s interest in Telangana Model increasing substantially

The BJP-Shiv Sena government seems to be considering studying the Telangana Model of development in response to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi’s influence in Maharashtra.

It has been highlighted by BRS President and Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in all three public meetings he held in Maharashtra that there has been widespread demand for the Telangana Model to be implemented. According to sources, bureaucrats have already been assigned the task of studying Telangana’s schemes, and Eknath Shinde himself will meet with stakeholders later this week to discuss these schemes.

Shinde, who had earlier hastened to replicate Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu scheme by announcing an input subsidy for farmers of Rs 6,000 per acre after Chandrashekhar Rao’s first meeting in Nanded, was said to have called for discussions following more demands from different quaters.

Vinayak Patil, a social activist in Latur district, launched a fast unto death to pressure the State government to replicate the Telangana Model. After fasting for five days, his health deteriorated.

Former Maharashtra BRS leader Shankar Anna Dhondge, who met Patil on behalf of Chandrashekhar Rao, said Maharashtra government representatives had called up Patil and assured him of steps to discuss his demands.

“I persuaded him to give up the fast. Good sense seems to have prevailed on the people in power as well. They also called him over phone and assured him of steps to discuss his demand,” Dhondge said, saying that officials were already asked to study the schemes implemented in Telangana.

“Chief Minister Shinde will also discuss the schemes with stakeholders by the weekend. But the youth in the State are highly skeptical of the approach of the State leadership towards the pressing issues people have been facing. It is too late and people have made up their minds to get rid of the old guard which had failed to respond when people were crying for the attention of the administration,” he said.

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Maharashtra’s move to ban the thalati system was also a major indicator of the impact of BRS. Chandrashekhar Rao had stated that Telangana had abolished the thalati (VRA) system and that Maharashtra should follow suit. Discussions are already underway for this as well, according to reports.

Noting that disillusionment was visible on the faces of key segments of the State’s population, particularly youth, farmers, and women, he stated that the overwhelming support for Chandrashekhar Rao’s meetings demonstrated that people were pinning their hopes on the BRS and, in fact, were celebrating the party’s arrival in their State.

“Suicides of farmers are still a reality in Maharashtra. Earlier, after Vidarbha, Telangana had the highest number of farmer suicides. But Rythu Bandhu, uninterrupted power supply, the Kaleshwaram project and finally the procurement of food grains by the State government have all changed the perception of Telangana farmers towards agriculture. All these benefits are being missed by farmers in Maharashtra,” he said. He added that the BRS impact was not confined to the Vidarbha region that shares its border with Telangana, but in districts close to Gujarat as well.

Employees in the IT sector from Maharashtra, many of whom work in Hyderabad, were also praising the Telangana Chief Minister and his development model. They are drawing parallels between the leaderships of the two States. According to Dhondge, this young section is emerging as major campaigners for the BRS in Maharashtra.