Hyderabad: Keen on winning the elections by the hook or the crook and come to power, the major political parties have promised moon to the voters, but they have failed to come out with facts relating to the resources that can be mobilized by the Government if they form the Government. The TRS on one hand, the four-party alliance on the other, have taken the elections as a matter of prestige and made innumerable promises, though the BJP has not lagged behind in attempts to lure the voters.
Once the election results are out on December 11 and the victorious party or alliance takes over, one has to see how far the ruling dispensation would implement the promises and what measures they would resort to raise the required resources.
Interestingly, the Congress party, the main and major partner of the Praja Front, has in its manifesto made quite a large number of promises, which require very huge amount to implement them. That the party is totally frustrated as it was out of power for nearly five years, and is desperate to grab power, is quite evident from the promises it has made to the electorate, without taking into consideration the resources position of the State.
The State’s resources account for around Rs 1.60 lakh crore, while the funds needed for implementing the promises made by the Congress would require at least another Rs 70,000 crore to one lakh crore. In this scenario, if at all the Front forms Government, will it resort to hiking existing taxes or imposing new taxes, or relegate to the background leaving development works like Irrigation and power projects and so on to fulfill the welfare assurances, is the Million Dollar question.
Political observers opine that it will be an uphill task for the Congress Government to fulfill all the promises without putting additional tax burden on the people, and in all probability, the party would opt to forget some of the assurances given to the voters. The track record of both the Congress and the TDP which have ruled the State for nearly 58 years is known to the people. Many of the election promises repeatedly made by these two parties to capture power were not implemented, and this time also, the Government might face failure to fulfill some of the promises made, in view of financial constraints.
In this context, one TRS observer remarked that the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu might have spent some five or six hundred crore rupees for election campaigning, as he is hell bent on seeing the ouster of Chandrashekhar Rao and the TRS from power, due to his personal reasons and also to prove the existence of his party; but he will not be offering, in any manner, thousands of crores of rupees for implementing the promises.
So far as the TRS is concerned, it was forced to make many promises to counter the Congress and TDP manifestoes. No doubt, the TRS also had failed to implement some of the promises made by its leader, but at the same time, the KCR Government had undertaken some of the programs, which were not promised by it, for the welfare of the people and lakhs of people were benefited by them. No need to mention, it would be a difficult task for the TRS also to implement the election promises in toto, after coming to power. People have to wait and watch who will capture power and then how the ruling party/parties will fulfill the promises made to the voters! (NSS)
(P.A. Rama Rao)
