KTR fears President rule

Hyderabad: Will Telangana Assembly elections be postponed to April? Will the state go to polls under President’s rule?

Well, this possibility is not ruled out. The BRS seems to have got some strong indications to this effect as party working president K T Rama Rao himself expressed such an apprehension on Tuesday.

In his interaction with the media, KTR said if the Election Commission does not announce the schedule of polls by October 10, then there is no possibility of Assembly polls being held in November. He said clarity would come only after the brief session of Parliament later this month. The Centre appears to have decided to go ahead with its proposal to club the Lok Sabha elections with the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram and Telangana.

He felt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one leader who would not like to lose power even for a day. The BRS leader said that if elections to the Assembly and Lok Sabha were held separately, the BJP would surely lose five states. Hence, Modi wants to club the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections of the states which are due for polls.

Referring to the denials by some leaders like Prakash Javadekar and Union minister G Kishan Reddy, KTR said they may not know what is in store. Though the special session of Parliament is just a week from now, even the President of India and Lok Sabha Speaker perhaps do not know what the agenda would be, he quipped.

The BRS leader said that the BJP may wait till the inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in January, convene another brief session for passing vote-on-account budget and dissolve the Lok Sabha. Since there would be examinations in February and March, the Centre may opt for holding polls in April, he added. Though KTR said that this move would not help the BJP in any way as the BRS was ready for polls and had also announced its candidates, party sources say that the Centre’s moves have caused concern for the party. The BRS wanted to showcase its achievements during the last nine years and take up aggressive campaign so that it can come back to power with comfortable majority. If the elections are clubbed with that of the Lok Sabha, it may have to rework its campaign strategy as national issues would dominate the polls.

Another problem is if the elections are deferred till April, then sustaining the campaign for the next six months will be a big task.

The BRS felt that if the Assembly polls were over in November, it can focus on national politics and test its waters in the Lok Sabha elections in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan. But if they are clubbed, it may cause hurdles in implementing its plans. Even implementing the ongoing projects may face problems if President’s rule is imposed, the party top leadership feels.