The five guarantees that helped the Congress in Karnataka just six months ago are reverberating in every corner of its poll-bound neighbour, Telangana, where the ruling Bharath Rashtra Samithi is making a strong pitch for a third successive term in office riding on its own performance and welfare schemes.

The resurgent Congress has replicated the Karnataka model with its guarantees prominently listed in the poll manifesto, while the BRS, which initially dismissed them, has enhanced its own welfare schemes and promises.

The youngest state that goes to polls on November 30 to elect 119 lawmakers is witnessing a battle of attrition between the ruling BRS helmed by K. Chandrashekar Rao and a more aggressive Congress.

While the BRS is certainly faced with some amount of anti-incumbency, although only the voters can decide if it’s enough to send the party out of power, the Karnataka story is being told and re-told in the state like no other.

The main challenger, the Congress, is banking heavily on the six guarantees — one more than in Karnataka — it has promised in its manifesto. The party’s state president and one of the two main aspirants for the top post, should it win, A. Revanth Reddy, has even promised that the first cabinet meeting — again a Karnataka example — would issue official orders on the guarantees.

Labelled Abhaya Hastam (helping hand), the Congress promises Rs 2,500 monthly to women, LPG at Rs 500 and free bus travel in all Telangana state transport buses under the Mahalakshmi scheme, Rythu Bharosa financial assistance to farmers, 200 units of free electricity under Gruha Jyothi, land for the homeless to build houses under the Indramma Indlu housing scheme, Rs 5 lakh educational assistance under Yuva Vikasam, and monthly pension of Rs 6,000 to senior citizens, widows, single women, among others, under a pension scheme named Cheyutha.

This is one better than what the party implemented in Karnataka under Gruha Lakshmi that provides Rs 2,000 to women heads of families, 200 units of free electricity under Gruha Jyothi, free bus rides for women, monthly unemployment allowances under Yuva Nidhi and 10 kilos of free rice to poor families.

The BRS and the BJP are warning the people about the “flawed implementation” in Karnataka, where several complaints have emerged.

“When they can’t even implement their guarantees properly in Karnataka, they are now coming here and making similar promises,” BRS spokesperson Manne Krishank told The Telegraph.

Former chief minister of Karnataka, B.S. Yediyurappa, warned the Telangana people not to be fooled by the Congress guarantees. “The Congress is following the Karnataka model here. But I appeal to the people of Telangana not to be fooled by them since they have cheated the people of Karnataka and failed to implement the guarantees,” he told a media conference here on Wednesday.

But the BRS doesn’t fear that the guarantees would tilt the scale. “The welfare schemes we have been running for 10 years are far more effective in ushering in positive changes. The Congress’s guarantees are nothing new in Telangana,” said Krishank.

Yet the BRS, which initially called the Congress guarantees non-implementable, certainly didn’t want to take chances.

Chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao himself announced the enhancement of pensions from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000, against Rs 4,000 promised by the Congress; Rs 16,000 Rythu Bandhu investment support for farmers per acre per annum, against Rs 15,000 offered by the Congress; and LPG cylinders at Rs 400 for the underprivileged, among a slew of promises.

State Congress spokesperson Thakur Balaji Singh had no doubt the guarantees would yield results. “What we have proved in Karnataka will be repeated in Telangana. See how even the BRS believes in our guarantees now (by replicating them),” he told this newspaper.

He acknowledged shortcomings in the Karnataka model. “There will be some shortcomings when a new idea is implemented. But the intention is honest and any flaws will be corrected in due course,” he said.