KCR takes early lead to preempt Opposition moves

An atmosphere of an early election is prevailing in Telangana with Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao seeking dissolution of the Assembly.

The TRS's move is aimed at checking the consolidation among the Opposition ranks.

The term of the present Assembly, which first met on June 9, 2014, was to end on June 9, 2019. It is learnt that the chief minister is proposing to the Election Commission to conduct elections in Telangana along with other states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh.

The TRS was in a hurry to dissolve the Assembly even before the Election Commission could sound the poll bugle for the four states.

Negative for Naidu

However, early elections did not prove good for N Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh in 2003, who dissolved the Assembly hoping that there will elections within six months.

The Election Commission took 199 days to conduct the elections in two phases, while the Assembly was dissolved on November 14, 2003. The sympathy wave over an assassination attempt on Naidu’s life by the Maoists waned out and drought gripped the state. Naidu lost the elections.

There is a section in the TRS which is expressing apprehensions of a “delayed” early poll or a President's Rule citing the resignation of two YSR Congress party MPs a few months ago and the EC inaction in notifying the by-polls more than two-and-a-half-months after their resignations were accepted by Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

The promises

Party sources say that Rao is keen on seeking an early mandate to silence the main opposition Congress, which is in an upbeat mood following party president Rahul Gandhi’s visit to Hyderabad. The Opposition is attacking the ruling TRS on its major promises such as three-acre land to the Scheduled Castes, reservation for Muslims, two-bedroom houses for the weaker sections and above all jobs for the unemployed youth.

“The early election rant is to avoid embarrassment after it failed to keep its promises such as government’s flagship programmes,” says Telangana Congress chief Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy.

But the determined TRS seems to have set its mind on elections at an early date. “I see no reason why the Congress has to worry when we are ready to go for early polls, sacrificing one more year of governance,” said state IT Minister K T Rama Rao.

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