Stage set for KCR’s mega rally in Hyderabad where Telangana CM may announce early polls

Thousands of supporters of Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao have started gathering in Hyderabad for a rally where he is expected to announce early elections in state and list welfare measures to woo voters.

Rao held a cabinet meeting Sunday afternoon before he heads to his Telangana Rashtra Samithi party’s ‘Pragati Nivedana’ (Progress report) rally at around 6pm.

The cabinet was expected to pass a resolution to dissolve the Assembly and recommend this to Governor ESL Narasimhan.

Rao has been dropping hints of assembly election being advanced for the past few weeks. He already declared that the party will announce its candidates in September. However, it is not clear if the decision will be taken on Sunday or later this week.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, is keen to advance the assembly polls to avoid simultaneous elections to the Assembly and the Parliament.

Assembly elections are due in Telangana in April-May next year along with the Lok Sabha polls

KCR’s two meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August further added to the speculation.

KCR’s son and cabinet minister KT Rama Rao said the chief minister will take a final decision on early polls. Rama Rao, who is number two in the party and the government, is confident of TRS retaining power whenever the elections are held.

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, a TRS leader had earlier told HT.

At the Pragati Nivedana rally, the party will highlight the government’s programmes and achievements since it came to power in the newly created state in 2014. Being held at Ibrahimpatnam on the city outskirts, it is expected to attract 25 lakh people. Rama Rao claims that this will be the biggest political rally in the country.

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.

Telangana Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao depicted as Lord Rama in a Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) poster in Ranga Reddy district, ahead of the party's Pragathi Nivedhana Sabha which will be held later today pic.twitter.com/Py8bd2TOgQ

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2018

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. Over the last few days, he announced sops for various sections of people and also transferred IAS and IPS officers.

On Saturday, he announced a 35% pay hike for employees of the electricity department.

The state government has also 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.

First Published: Sep 02, 2018 13:00 IST