Telangana may hold early polls

Telangana Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday said he would take a decision on early elections soon.

Addressing a massive public meeting — ‘Pragathi Nivedana Sabha’ — in Kongarkalan on the outskirts of Hyderabad, he said he would take a call after considering what is good for the people of the state and also for the party. The state Cabinet would meet again shortly to take a decision on the issue.

KCR said that there has been a lot of buzz around early elections in the recent past. “There were reports that I will dissolve the Assembly. My Cabinet colleagues and MPs have authorised to me to take any decision. You will come to know of my decision very soon,” he said.

“There are political parties that are predicting our fall so that they can bring the state to the mercy of the Delhi rulers once again,” he said, hitting at the Congress. “The same people tried to force us to kneel before them, but we resisted and fought. Only then did we get Telangana,” KCR said. However, he made no direct attack on the BJP.

Reeling off the various developmental projects in his four years and three months, KCR asked the people to vote for TRS.

“There are more than 400 major decisions, including Mission Bhagiratha, irrigation schemes, free insurance for farmers, Rs 4,000 per acre cash input and two bedroom houses for poor that TRS has implemented in this short time,” he said.

KCR said that K Kesava Rao, TRS parliamentary party leader, has been entrusted with drafting the party manifesto for the ensuing elections. He, however, made no mention of the alliances or seat adjustments with other political parties.

The master of mega public meetings, however, used the event to gauge people's trust in him. Around 7,000 buses from TSRTC and thousands of tractors were hired to ferry people to the venue spread across 2000 acres.

TPCC chief Capt Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that people were forcibly brought to the public meeting and there was gross misuse of official machinery by the ruling party.