Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Monday slammed Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao accusing him of failing to waive off loans of farmers even though the BRS was projecting itself as a farmer-friendly party.

Bandi Sanjay cited the average amount of outstanding loan per agricultural household in Telangana which was Rs1.52 lakh, almost double of the national average of Rs74,121 lakh. He took to Twitter to take a dig at the chief minister’s slogan, “Ab ki bar kisan sarkar.”

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The BJP MP from Karimnagar wrote: “KCR’s Ab ki bar kisan sarkar means more debt on farmers! Every agricultural household in Telangana has an outstanding loan of Rs 1.52 lakh which is twice the national average of Rs74,121 lakh.”

He went on to add: “Defaulter chief minister of Telangana failed to keep up his promise of loan waiver!”

However, there are other states in the country whose outstanding loan per agricultural household was higher than Telangana. The list submitted by Bandi Sanjay had Andhra Pradesh at the very top with Rs2.45 lakh , Haryana at Rs1.82 lakh , Punjab at Rs2.03 lakh while in Karnataka it was Rs1.26 lakh. In fact all states with high agricultural output showed a high outstanding loan amount per agricultural household in the state.

However, Rao’s government, which is projected as farmer-friendly, has come under fire for its policies. The chief minister’s pet scheme for farmers is Rythu Bandhu, an input subsidy scheme of Rs 10,000 per acre and paid in two instalments has been criticised since it is only the big farmers who have benefited from the scheme.

Share-croppers and small farmers have been overlooked. Moreover, there are allegations that rural areas suffer from regular power cuts contrary to the claims of 24×7 power supply by the government.

However, the BRS supremo has highlighted the farmers’ issues, supported the movement against the farm laws and provided compensation to the families of 700 farmers who are said to have died during the movement. The kisan cell was one of the first wings to be set up of the newly rechristened BRS party. The party has attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminding him of his promise to double the income of farmers by 2022.