CM Chandrasekhar Rao likely to dissolve Telangana House by mid-September

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is likely to announce the dissolution of the state assembly in mid-September and go for elections along with the four states scheduled to do so in November-December this year, said a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader familiar with the developments. Assembly elections were due in Telangana in April-May next year along with the Lok Sabha polls.

However, the assessment within the TRS is that the party has “tremendous goodwill” among the people that needs to be tapped by advancing the polls, the leader added asking not to be identified. Also, a survey conducted by the TRS suggested that the party would win almost 100 out of the total 117 seats if the elections are held in the next few months, this person said.

Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram are going to polls in November-December this year. Rao or KCR, as he is popularly known, has been a strong votary of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, a proposal pushed by PM Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister has argued that the country remains in “perpetual election mode” and even the exercise of preparing the electoral rolls for the three-tier polls — municipal, state and country — consumes considerable time and money.

On Sunday, the TRS will hold a rally at Ibrahimpatnam to highlight the government’s programmes and achievements since it came to power in the newly created state in 2014.

TRS leader Palla Rajeshwar Reddy said about 2.5 million people are expected to attend the public meeting with party workers from all 31 districts of the state in full attendance.

He added that KCR would present a “roadmap for TRS” for the assembly polls.

Perhaps with the elections in mind, the TRS government has in the past few months announced a slew of measures for the welfare of farmers. In the first week of August, it launched life insurance schemes for nearly 2.8 million farmers in the state.

The state government has paid more than Rs 600 crore to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) as a premium for the scheme, which costs about Rs 2,271 per farmer.

In May, it launched a “crop investment support” initiative named Rythu Bandhu, that aims to provide Rs4,000 per acre each to land-owning farmers for rabi and kharif seasons.

KCR also does not want simultaneous elections with Andhra Pradesh in view of reports suggesting that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) might join hands with the Congress for the assembly elections, upsetting TRS’ calculations in Telangana.

By advancing the assembly elections, the TRS leader said KCR will get enough room to maneuver during the Lok Sabha elections and enable him to take a call on having an alliance at the national level.

In recent weeks, the TRS has been warming up to the BJP. While the Prime Minister has been praising KCR, the TRS abstained from a no-confidence motion against the government and later supported NDA candidate Harivnash in the elections to the Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson’s post.

KCR has also twice met the Prime Minister in the past two months,most recently on August 4.

First Published: Sep 01, 2018 07:11 IST