Congress Dues Card campaign by BRS strikes a chord with people across Telangana
BRS’s Congress Dues Card campaign, led by KT Rama Rao, exposes 420 unfulfilled promises of the Congress government across Telangana. Distributed door-to-door, it has drawn voter resentment, undermining Congress and strengthening BRS momentum ahead of local body elections.
Hyderabad: Designed to expose the 420 promises of the Congress government, the Congress Dues Card campaign is gaining massive traction across Telangana, forcing the ruling party onto the defensive just as the local body elections draw closer.
Unable to answer the questions being raised by people, the Congress has launched a counter campaign called BRS Dhoka Card (betrayal card), which however has found no takers.
Launched by BRS working president KT Rama Rao recently, the Dues Card movement has rapidly transformed into a Statewide political counteroffensive. Buoyed by its success, the BRS leaders have intensified the campaign in all districts. In village after village, BRS cadre, MLAs, MLCs and former Ministers are going door to door distributing the Congress Dues Cards, which list out the unfulfilled promises of the Congress, from crop insurance and pensions to women’s financial aid and youth employment.
Each card details the “dues” owed to various sections: Rs 2,500 per month to women, Rs 6,000 to the disabled, Rs 4,000 pensions for the elderly, gold coins for women under Kalyana Lakshmi/Shaadi Mubarak and financial assistance to tenant and farm labourers, which are all part of the Congress’s pre-election guarantees. BRS leaders argued that these cards were not propaganda, but receipts of betrayal, reminding people how the Congress secured votes with false promises and defaulted on every guarantee.
According to BRS leaders, the campaign’s impact is visible on the ground. Farmers frustrated by fertiliser shortages, women angry over stalled welfare payments and pensioners disappointed with unfulfilled assurances are reportedly expressing open resentment towards the Congress leaders visiting their villages.
“The anger is so deep that people are refusing to even meet local Congress functionaries,” a senior BRS leader said.
Sensing the rising discontent, the Congress held emergency meetings at Gandhi Bhavan to strategise damage control. Party insiders admitted that the Dues Card has hit hard, prompting them to launch the BRS Betrayal Card to question the previous BRS government’s failure. However, observers stated that the attempt had only boomeranged, as the Congress was only pointing to BRS’ failures to defend itself, rather than counter the BRS with its own achievements in last 22 months.
Meanwhile, the BRS has intensified the movement across all districts before the local body polls. They are not only launching the campaign in every village, but conducting a door-to-door campaign distributing these cards to sensitise and remind people of the Congress government’s failures and betrayal. As the campaign gathers more steam, political analysts noted that BRS has successfully turned public disappointment into a potent grassroots weapon and set the tone for the local body polls.
