TS VOTES ON DEC. 7
Results of all 5 states to be declared on Dec. 11
The process relating to the Telangana state Assembly elections is moving as predicted by TRS president and caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, with the Election Commission scheduling the poll for December 7. The results will be declared on December 11.
As Mr Rao had stated earlier, the TS polls will be held along with elections to four other states, according to the schedule announced by Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat on Saturday.
Chhattisgarh will go to the polls in two phases on November 12 and 20, elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on November 28 and Rajasthan will vote along with TS on December 7,
After the dissolution of the Assembly on September 6, Mr Rao had told the media that the TS elections would be held along with that of four other states and the election process would be completed by the first week of December.
He said that the election schedule would be announced in the first week of October and the notification issued in November.
It so happened that Mr Rawat announced the election schedule on October 6; Mr Rao considers six his lucky number.
The election notification will be issued on November 12, and filing of nominations will start the same day.
Polling will be held on December 7 and counting of votes will take place on December 11. The new government will be formed in the third week of December.
Political parties have ample time for campaigning, and the Congress has enough time to work out seat adjustments with its allies. With 36 days remaining for issuing the notification, political parties are in no hurry to take up election-related activities.
The main political parties like the TRS, Congress and the BJP have already started their campaigns. The TRS was at the forefront in announcing 105 out of 119 candidates. The Congress is still in discussions with its allies for a common minimum programme and the BJP has not announced its candidates yet.
With the election schedule being announced for the TS Assembly polls on Saturday, the TRS is racing ahead among all other parties in electioneering.
The TRS which announced the list of candidates for 105 seats out of 119, already completed one month of campaigning, while other parties are yet to begin candidate selection process.
TRS chief and caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has addressed election meetings in four districts in a month and is planning to take up constituencywise campaigning after Dasara.
The TRS leadership has devised a two-pronged strategy for Assembly polls campaigning with Mr Rao as the sole star campaigner. While other parties are banking on film actors to attract voters, the TRS is relying solely on Mr Rao to win Assembly polls.
The plan-A was to hold public meetings of Mr Rao covering the 10 undivided districts. Of this, Mr Rao has already covered Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Mahbubnagar districts.
Mr Rao wanted to cover all remaining districts barring Hyderabad before Dasara but due to delay in finalisation of pending 14 candidates, which falls in these districts, he postponed the meetings.
With election schedule already out, Mr Rao wants to shift to plan-B to hold meetings constituencywise after Dasara.
In GHMC limits, Mr K.T. Rama Rao and Ms K. Kavitha will engage in campaigning in all constituencies, while the TRS chief will hold a big public meeting in the city towards the end of the campaigning deadline.
The party has sent extensive publicity material to all Assembly constituencies due to which TRS candidates are taking up campaigning on a full scale.