TS POLLS LIKELY IN NOVEMBER
KCR says poll panel chief promised him elections along with four other states
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday said Assembly elections would be held in November and the new government would be in place in December.
He said he had personally spoken to Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat and two election commissioners and had got a specific assurance from them on holding elections in November along with the four other states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram.
Mr Rao expressed confidence that the TRS would win over 100 seats. Even if all other parties join hands, they can’t defeat the TRS as all surveys indicate that it would get over 50 per cent votes in the 100-plus seats.
According to the Supreme Court judgement on Gujarat, elections should be held within six months of the dissolution of the Assembly. The Constitution does not mention about conducting the elections after the dissolution of the Assembly. But the statute says that by-elections should be conducted within six months if any seat falls vacant.
“I have done a thorough exercise on elections before dissolving the House. Do you expect me to take such an important decision lightly? I have personally spoken to Election Commission officials. Chief secretary S.K. Joshi and TS government chief adviser Rajiv Sharma had discussions with them. We have explained our readiness for polls along with the four other states. There is no scope for any confusion on holding early polls,” Mr Rao said. “As far as I know, the election notification will be issued in the first week of October, the elections will be held in November and results will be out in the first week of December. Elections to all states will be held in a single phase barring Madhya Pradesh, where two phases are being planned.”
Mr Rao lashed out at AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu for obstructing the projects in Telangana state and the proposed tie-up between the TD and the Congress for the Assembly polls.
“Chandrababu is antiTelangana to the core. He writes letters to Centre and files cases in the Supreme Court against our irrigation projects. If the Congress joins hands with the TD, it will not retain even deposits. Our surveys revealed that TD has the support of not even 0.1 or 0.2 per cent voters in Telangana state,” Mr Rao added.
The Supreme Court said that the clause on conducting by-elections should be taken as the benchmark for conducting elections after the Assembly is dissolved. Going by this, the Election Commission has to conduct the Telangana state Assembly elections before February.
The final electoral rolls will be published on January 4, 2019, as per the EC schedule. If it wants to conduct the Assembly elections before January, it will take into consideration the voters list of January 1, 2018. Voters who enrolled after January 1 this year may not have the opportunity to vote in this election.