Hyderabad Monthly financial assistance of ₹2,500 for women, LPG cylinders at ₹500, 200 units of free electricity for all households and ₹2 lakh crop loan waiver are among the six guarantees announced by the Congress in its manifesto for the Telangana assembly elections.

Read here: Congress releases manifesto, lists out 6 guarantees

Releasing the 42-page manifesto titled “Abhaya Hastam” in Hyderabad on Friday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the party has a comprehensive plan for the development of Telangana.

“We have sensed the people’s need for a change in the government. To ensure that we form the government, we have launched this manifesto that covers the needs of every section of the society,” he said.

Elections in the state are scheduled for November 30, the last in the crucial clutch of assembly polls across five states, with results to be declared on December 3.

In its manifesto, the Congress has categorised the six guarantees as “Mahalakshmi”, “Rythu Bharosa”, “Gruha Jyothi”, “Indiramma Indlu”, “Yuva Vikasam” and “Cheyutha”.

Under the section “Mahalakshmi”, the party has announced several sops for women, including ₹2,500 monthly assistance, gas cylinders for ₹500 and free travel in RTC buses.

The “Rythu Bharosa” promises ₹15,000 annual investment assistance to farmers and ₹12,000 to farm labourers; while a monthly pension of ₹4,000 will be provided to senior citizens, widows, disabled, beedi workers, single women, weavers, AIDS and Filaria patients and kidney patients undergoing dialysis under “Cheyutha” scheme.

The “Yuva Vikasam” guarantees financial assistance cards of ₹5 lakh to students pursuing college education.

“Free internet through Wi-Fi facilities will be provided to all students,” it said.

The Gruha Jyothi scheme promises 200 units of free electricity to every household; while Indiramma Indlu guarantees 250 sq yard plot to activists of the Telangana statehood movement and ₹5 lakh aid for the homeless.

The manifesto also promises to increase the reservation of Schedule Castes to 18%, proportionate to the SC population and the implementation of the Ambedkar Abhaya Hastam — a scheme to provide financial assistance of ₹12 lakh per family for SCs and STs within five years.

Under a section called the Kamareddy Backward Classes (BC) declaration, the manifesto promises to increase BC reservations based on the caste census and submission of the BC commission report within 6 months of assuming power. The document also promises to increase the backward class reservations to 42% from the existing 23% in local bodies.

To counter the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti’s Telangana statehood pitch, the Congress has vouched to identify those that died during the movement, along with a government job to one person in the family, and an honorary pension of ₹25,000 to their dependents.

“We will implement all of these six guarantees and the other schemes listed in the manifesto within days of coming to power,” chairman of the manifesto committee, D Sridhar Babu, said.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Kharge said: “Today, I can challenge and say no matter what Modi and KCR try together, Congress will certainly come to power.”

Read here: Telangana polls: KCR’s statehood battle plank finds few takers this election

Reacting to the manifesto, Telangana home minister and BRS leader Mohd Mahmood Ali told news agency ANI: “You can compare the work we (the BRS government) have done in the past 9 years and 4 months and the Congress’s work in the last 50 years. KCR is a great leader with a vision. What vision does the Congress have? Their manifesto is a manifesto of lies.”

A BRS leader, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “The Congress manifesto is a copy of BRS’s manifesto and they are trying to be in power by emulating us.”