With constant polls, babus running the show in TS

In an unprecedented situation, officials will have run the administration for almost 10 months from September last to June, with a small break in between, due to the series of elections in the state and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao not forming the Cabinet after the Assembly election results were announced in December.

In those 10 months, the state would have gone under the model code of conduct five times. This and the lack of a Cabinet has led to policy decisions being stalled and hundreds of files piling up.

About three months before the state polls, the administration went into the hands of officials when the Assembly was dissolved and the government was reduced to caretaker status on September 6.

The model code of conduct came into force from November 10 and lasted till the results were announced on December 11.

In an unprecedented situation, officials will have run the administration for almost 10 months from September last to June, with a small break in between, due to the series of elections in the state and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao not forming the Cabinet after the Assembly election results were announced in December.

Mr Rao took oath as Chief Minister in December along with Mohd. Mahmood Ali. More than two months after that, he has not expanded the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, the SEC announced the schedule for the panchayat elections on January 2, which reimposed the model code of conduct till the polls ended on January 31. This prevented any major decision being taken in the first month of the new government.

With the EC announcing the schedule for the MLC elections, the model code is back in place. The EC may announce the general election schedule in the first week of March. That will bring the state again under the model code of conduct till midMay. The EC has already announced that the municipal, zilla and mandal elections will be held in June, and there will be yet another spell of the code of conduct.