Early polls as Rao dissolves Assembly

Governor asks Rao to continue as caretaker chief minister

Ending months of speculation and suspense Telangana Legislative Assembly was dissolved yesterday paving the way for an early election in the state.

The dissolution came after the state cabinet at a brief meeting chaired by the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao passed a one-line resolution.

After the meeting at his official residence the chief minister drove straight to Raj Bhavan and submitted the resolution to the governor ESL Narasimhan. Accepting the recommendation the governor asked KCR to continue as caretaker chief minister.

A confident and gung-ho KCR later declared at a press conference that he expects the fresh elections for the 119 member state assembly will be held in November along with a few other states and the results will be announced in the first week of December.

Giving the reasons for opting for an early poll at least nine months before they were due, KCR said, “We decided to go to the people now to put an end to political fragility in the state caused by senseless, baseless, mindless and meaningless allegations of opposition”.

He said the opposition’s “baseless” allegations of corruption in drinking water and irrigation projects were impacting the development of the state and creating confusion.

With this, curtains were brought down on the first legislative assembly of Telangana, the youngest state of India.

The first government of the state headed by KCR had taken the oath on June 2, 2014 and the next elections were due in April-May next year.

KCR ruled out any confusion on when the election will be held. “There is no need for any confusion. I kept this to myself but the fact is that before the decision to dissolve the assembly was taken we discussed every possibility with the Chief Election Commissioner and the other election commissioners,” he said.