Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao advancing the launch of Dalit Bandhu, and starting it 12 days early, at his adopted village Vasalamarri on Wednesday, without prior intimation, was apparently done following reports that the Election Commission would issue the Huzurabad bypoll notification on Tuesday, August 10.
The government would not have been able to launch the scheme as scheduled on August 16, if the EC had issued the bypoll notification on August 10, due to the model code of conduct. The Chief Minister had picked August 16 because the day is said to be auspicious.
By launching it now, he can project it as an ongoing scheme.
This has alerted the Opposition BJP and Congress. BJP's Etala Rajendar, undergoing treatment at a private hospital here for the past week, was discharged and headed straight to Huzurabad on Thursday. The Congress too would step up its campaign activities in Huzurabad from Friday.
The CM's Rythu Bandhu scheme faced similar problems during the 2018 December Assembly polls. Opposition parties had then urged the EC to stop the scheme until those polls were over. The TRS government argued that it was not a new scheme but an ongoing one launched in May 2018. The EC agreed to this and allowed the start of Rythu Bandhu.
The government credited the promised amount in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries a week ahead of the polling. Opposition parties believe that the introduction of this scheme helped TRS retain power for a second term.
Opposition parties feel that the CM is adopting the same strategy to make Dalit Bandhu an 'ongoing scheme'.
Opposition leaders recollected Chandrashekar Rao’s statement in September 2018, soon after dissolution of the Assembly nine months early, that he got had reliable information from the EC that the polls would be held in November-end or early-December, along with four other states. The polls were eventually held in December
