Telangana politics picks up pace with polls likely in December
Chandrasekhar Rao, in a party meeting, claimed that elections would take place within six weeks.
“We are satisfied with the arrangements and poll-preparedness, but the decision to hold the polls and timing rests with the EC,” he said.
The district collectors had told the EC delegation that they were ready to draft enough staff for poll duties and Director General of Police Mahender Reddy said that enough police personnel would be kept ready for security. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Telangana Rajath Kumar submitted a report on poll-readiness.
The CEO told the EC delegation that as many as 44,000 VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial) machines and 22,000 control units were being supplied by the public sector Bharat Electronics Limited, Bangalore.
Already, the first batch of machines had been sent to Adilabad district in the state and the rest would reach by the month end.
However, the EC delegation faced a piquant situation when some political leaders raised the issue of deletion of around 20 lakh voters from the rolls since 2016. Former Congress minister Marri Sashidhar Reddy submitted a memorandum with details of deleted voters’ list in the limits of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Last week, Reddy submitted a note to Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat in Delhi on the deletion of voters and urged him not to go ahead with the election unless they were included in the rolls. Again on Friday, too, Reddy called on Rawat and raised the same issue. Reddy told the CEC that the ruling TRS was behind deletion of voters’ names in the city limits.
Reddy told The Sunday Guardian over phone that he urged the EC to take steps to ensure all eligible voters were enrolled.
Reddy earlier threatened to move the courts if the elections were conducted based on the existing voters’ lists which he termed “faulty”. He also felt that the poll staff should be trained on the VVPATs which are being used for the first time in Telangana.
The EC delegation, which heard all these complaints, is of the view that they can be sorted out by the end of October. Though the draft rolls are published by 8 October, there will be enough time for new inclusions and changes, if any. The process can go on till the month end or first week of November. The schedule for five state (including Telangana) Assemblies will be issued by then.
The EC’s decision to club Telangana Assembly elections with those of others will have political consequences. If elections in Telangana were held before that of others, it would be advantageous to CM KCR, who doesn’t want possible Congress revival in three northern states to impact his party’s show in the state.
That is the reason why he wants early elections in Telangana so that he can easily defeat Congress and demoralise the party before other state and Lok Sabha polls. He is afraid that any Congress revival in three states might affect his performance. KCR specifically called on Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan on Thursday to impress him on the need to hold Telangana elections as early as possible.
The indications from the EC in Delhi suggest that elections to all the five states would be held together (if not on the same dates) and results would be declared on the same day. If that happens, it would be a level playing field for all parties in Telangana as the Opposition camp wants the same and ruling TRS feels no harm in that.
Rawat’s comments in an interview to a news agency on Wednesday that the EC would hold polls in Telangana within six months after the dissolution of the Assembly shocked the TRS. If so, Telangana can go to polls by 6 March 2019, which may be time for general election to the Lok Sabha too, which TRS doesn’t like. However, the present pace of arrangements suggests December polls to the Telangana Assembly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will vigorously campaign against Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao after the election schedule for the Assembly was announced, BJP national president Amit Shah said here on Saturday. Shah made it clear that the BJP has no truck with the ruling TRS and would fight the polls with all seriousness. BJP would contest all 119 Assembly seats here.
Shah, who came to launch the BJP’s election campaign from Mahabubnagar, 110 km from here, made it clear that his party had no truck or secret understanding with TRS in Telangana and claimed that people would vote for his party based on the achievements of the Modi-led NDA government at the Centre in the last four-and-a-half years.
“We are the alternative to TRS and KCR in Telangana and we will provide the same this time. We are contesting elections with full force and emerge victorious too,” he told a media conference at the BJP office in Hyderabad earlier. Replying to a question, Shah said that the PM would definitely tour the state once campaign picks up after the election schedule was announced.
The BJP president rubbished speculation that KCR was backed by the PM and that the BJP would go soft on him in the coming Assembly elections. “You all know he (KCR) is in an alliance with AIMIM (All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), which is nothing but appeasement of Muslims. How can we support someone who has a pact with communal forces?” Shah said. The BJP president said that the BJP government at the Centre had done for Telangana in the last four years more than what the Congress-led UPA government had done over a decade. “We have given Rs 16,370 crore in the last four years and are committed to giving more. The state has seen unprecedented growth, thanks to the Centre’s help,” Shah said. Shah, after arriving here from Delhi, closeted with senior BJP leaders and told them to fan out in the state and highlight the achievements of the Modi government since 2014. Shah asked all the seniors to contest in the polls and told them that Lok Sabha tickets would be distributed to candidates based on their performance in the Assembly elections.