‘One Nation One Election’ in Telangana: Advantage Congress?

Hyderabad: The buzz in political parties today is that partial implementation of ‘one nation one election’ (ONOE) is a certainty and if it happens, how to face the polls?

Though on face of it, every party claims that they are ready to face the elections even if they are held today, there seems to be palpable nervousness among all political parties in the state.

For example, the AICC has asked the state unit of Telangana to submit a detailed report on the pros and cons of the outcome in case ONOE was implemented at least in the five poll-bound states as a test case.

While as a matter of policy, the AICC and the state units have taken a stand opposing ONOE, the TPCC feels that if it happens, the Congress in the state would be in an advantageous position. Congress leaders predict that the party would gain as the surveys indicate that the Congress is emerging strong and is likely to win between 40 to 45 seats in the Assembly elections.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress had won 19 Assembly seats and 3 MP seats. The state Congress leaders claim that if ONOE is implemented, they would win more than the double the number of seats both in the Assembly and Lok Sabha. They feel that the Congress would get about 8 to 10 Lok Sabha seats.

Their calculation seems to be based on the anti-incumbency factor being faced both by the state government and the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

The Congress had won three Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 when, Modi’s popularity was at its peak and the BJP won four MP seats in Telangana. Now, the situation is not in favour of the BJP as well as the ruling BRS and this would benefit them, the Congress leaders claim.

On the other hand, the BRS and BJP feel that the simultaneous elections will be detrimental for both the parties. They feel that the simultaneous elections would dilute their hopes of cashing in on the anti-incumbency factor.

The BJP had won four seats in the last Lok Sabha polls as the Modi wave played an important role during the last elections. But now, the BJP leadership had slipped and lost its ground after the Karnataka Assembly election results and with its changed policy, it is finding it difficult to win the confidence of the people that it was the alternative to the ruling BRS in the state.

The BRS too fears that if polls were held simultaneously, it may not be in a position to retain all the nine Lok Sabha seats it had won in the last election.