Union Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah on Saturday released the 'sankalp patra' (manifesto) of the party for Telangana and promised a hike in ST-backward caste quota, implementation of the uniform civil code (UCC), and a backward caste chief minister in case the party wins assembly elections.
Telangana is among the five states that are having the month-long election cycle. While voters have sealed the fate of their leaders in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Mizoram, voting in Telangana will take place on November 30 and Rajasthan will go to polls on November 25.
During his visit to Telangana, Shah on Saturday released the party's manifesto and made a slew of announcements. He also announced that, if the party came to power in the state, the party's government would introduce low-interest loans to women self-help groups, distribute laptops to college students, and four gas cylinders free of cost to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries.
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Shah dubbed these promises as the "guarantee of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji".
"The 'Ghoshna Patra' of Telangana is in a way the guarantee of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji. It has been the track record of the BJP to fulfil the promises it gives in its Ghoshana Patras; we have been fulfilling our promises right from the beginning...from the Jana Sangh times," said Shah.
Here is the list of announcements that Shah made for poll-bound Telangana:
1. A backward caste (BC) chief minister in case of a BJP victory in the state
2. Increase in quota for BCs, scheduled castes (SCs), and scheduled tribes (STs) after abolishing "unconstitutional" 4 per cent quota to Muslims
3. Four free cooking gas cylinders to Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries a year
4. Rs. 2 lakh fixed deposit upon the birth of a girl child
5. Free laptops to college/university students
6. Loans at 1 per cent interest rate for women self-help groups
7. Implementation of Uniform civil code (UCC) within six months of government's formation
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In addition to these announcements, Shah also announced that alleged corruption cases during the tenure of Chief Minister K Chandrababu Rao would also be investigated if the party came to power.
Shah said, "Under the KCR Government, Telangana has become 'loottantra' (system of theft) in place of 'loktantra' (democracy), and there, the 'prajatantra' (people's system) has become the 'parivartantra' (family system)! The only goal of KCR is to make his son, the Chief Minister of Telangana...We'll have zero-tolerance against corruption. We'll investigate all the cases of corruption through a system headed by the retired Supreme Court judge. All those involved in corruption will be made to stay behind the bars!"
