KCR is all for early polls?

Hyderabad: Is TRS gearing up for early polls? If the deliberations that took place at the emergency meeting convened by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at his farmhouse on Saturday is any indication, it appears that he is making serious moves in that direction.

According to party sources, greater clarity would come on Monday when the TRS Legislative Party would meet at Telangana Bhavan. The Chief Minister wants to adopt a two-pronged strategy: one to try to corner the Union government in Parliament on purchase of paddy during Rabi season, and the other, to lead a delegation to New Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other ministers and organise dharnas, agitations and protests demanding that the Centre procure the entire paddy produced during Rabi on a par with Punjab.

The Monday meeting would be attended by all Ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, state executive committee members, district presidents, ZP chairpersons, presidents of DCCBs, DCMS and district presidents of Rythu Bandhu Samithis and Chairpersons of corporations. The Chief Minister along with a select team of leaders and officials will leave for New Delhi after the meeting.

This is not the first time the TRS chief has given a call for the protest programmes against the Centre on the procurement of paddy. Earlier, he had sat on a Maha dharna at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park in November last year and said he would lead the farmers' agitation at national level. Later, a delegation of ministers was sent to New Delhi to meet union ministers to seek a clarification on whether the Centre would procure paddy of the previous Rabi season. However, the ministers had to return without any assurance as they could not meet the union ministers.

It is learnt that the Chief Minister told the meeting on Saturday that it was a life and death issue for the farmers of Telangana and that the TRS party was gearing up for an intensive struggle over the paddy procurement.