Telangana House dissolved, stage set for early polls
Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the Telangana assembly on Thursday, taking a step towards holding early elections in the southern state in a move analysts say may have been prompted by a desire to fight a possible Congress-Telugu Desam Party alliance in the state on his own terms (and timing), even as speculation grew about his growing closeness to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Governor ESL Narasimhan accepted the resolution after a visit by Rao, who chaired the Cabinet meeting that took the decision.
HYDERABAD: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao dissolved the Telangana assembly on Thursday, taking a step towards holding early elections in the southern state in a move analysts say may have been prompted by a desire to fight a possible Congress-Telugu Desam Party alliance in the state on his own terms (and timing), even as speculation grew about his growing closeness to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Governor ESL Narasimhan accepted the resolution after a visit by Rao, who chaired the 15-minute Cabinet meeting that took the decision. Polling in Telangana is due in April-May, when the country will vote in the general elections. The final decision on whether to hold an early election in the state now rests with the Election Commission.
The poll panel will meet on Friday to take a call on whether voting in Telangana can be clubbed with the upcoming elections in four other states later this year. An official aware of the developments said that the commission will arrive at a decision after receiving a detailed report from the chief electoral officer of the state on various aspects of poll preparedness.
The TRS had 90 of the 119 seats in the state assembly. The state sends 17 members to the Lok Sabha. The governor asked Rao and his council of ministers “to continue in office as a caretaker government,” said a press note from the Raj Bhavan. Soon after, Rao announced candidates for 105 constituencies in Telangana even as he faced criticism by the Opposition, which said the chief minister was trying to avoid simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assembly.
Addressing a packed press conference at the headquarters of his Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Rao said, “There is a political fragility in the state now. The opposition parties, especially the Congress party, have been making serious allegations against me and my government without any basis and evidence.”
He may have been referring to the Congress calling him Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “puppet” earlier this week, a charge that the party reiterated on Thursday.
In his conference, Rao also referred to Congress president Rahul Gandhi as a “buffoon”. Rao has met Modi three times in the 10 weeks, prompting speculation that he may be aligning with the party.