A day after the Election Commission of India gave permission to the Telangana government to disburse funds through direct benefit transfer (DBT) to the farmer beneficiaries of the Rythu Bandhu scheme Congress state president A Revanth Reddy said it was evident that the BJP and the BRS has a “Fevicol bond” and were colluding to defeat the Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Pointing out that Rythu Bandhu, which was a farmers’ investment support scheme started by the BRS government, was usually released in January, Mr Reddy pointed out that it was being disbursed just four days before the polling date. Telangana elections will be held on 30 November. Last evening the state government received the nod from the ECI to release the funds through DBT.

“The Commission has no objection to disbursement of Rythu Bandhu assistance and has further directed that the DBT under the scheme will not be affected during silence period and poll day in the state” read the directive from the ECI. In the 2018 Assembly elections, a similar situation had arisen and voters even while standing in the queue for voting were alerted by SMS that Rs 5,000 had been deposited in their accounts under Rythu Bandhu scheme.

Therefore, this time the Telangana Congress leaders had taken the precaution of approaching the ECI and pleaded that this instalment of the scheme should be released before 15 November. Since the Model Code of Conduct is in force the state government requires permission from ECI to release the money to beneficiaries. Around Rs 7,300 crore will be disbursed among 65 lakh farmers in the next few days.

Today, the PCC chief slammed the move, saying: “It is evident that there is a fevicol bond between the BRS and the BJP-led Centre. KCR is trying to win the election by spending money.” He also pointed out other state government schemes which were running including Dalit Bandhu, BC Bandhu and Minority Bandhu were all similar but the state government asked permission from ECI to release funds only under the Rythu Bandhu scheme.

“This is because the BJP and the BRS are hand-in-glove. The BJP says it wants to defeat the BRS but both are colluding to defeat the Congress,” said Mr Reddy. He also assured the farmers that they won’t suffer any losses by accepting the payment since Congress after coming to power will pay them the enhanced amount of Rs15,000. “Moreover, we will also pay the share croppers the amount under Rythu Bandhu,” assured Mr Reddy who advised farmers to accept the funds.

He also alleged that IT and ED raids were taking place only on the premises of Congress candidates who have recently joined the party either from BRS and BJP. “Till G Vivek Venkataswamy was in BJP he was Ram for them. Now that he has quit the party after realising that the BJP and BRS are colluding he has become Ravan for them,” said Reddy.