'One Nation, One Poll' may backfire: Gutha Sukender Reddy

Hyderabad: Telangana Legislative Council Chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy on Saturday said that the decision to have 'One nation, One Poll' is likely to backfire as the political situation will not be the same all the time.

In an informal interaction with the media, Sukhender Reddy said 'One nation, One Poll' was not a new concept. "It was there earlier also. BJP may be thinking that it will help them politically but they should understand that political situation would never be the same. Farmers' agitation is going on... don't know what impact it will have. A small issue can make things go upside down," he said.

"We had seen what happened in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Haryana. They have won there by manipulating," said the Council Chairman. Replying to a question, Reddy said that there will be no impact of Dubbaka and GHMC elections on Nagarjuna Sagar bypoll. The political situation in Nalgonda is different compared to Dubbaka and also urban politics, he said.

Asked if he would contest elections, Sukhender Reddy said that so far no one asked him to contest. He said he would react if he was asked to contest. He, however, added that he was happy as Chairman of the Council.

At the same time, he said, he would be doing whatever Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao would ask him to do. The Chairman once again reiterated that there should be unanimous election in Nagarjuna Sagar.

He also opined that tradition of giving a ticket to one of the family members of a departed leader. "When Ragya Naik died, the candidate from the family was elected unanimous," said Sukhender Reddy.

He said that the local and non-local was not an issue in Sagar as almost 90 per cent of the leaders reside in Hyderabad.

Responding to the news reports that TRS would want to make Congress win in Sagar, Sukhender Reddy said every party contests to win.

The Council Chairman expressed dissatisfaction on the use of language by the opposition party leaders. A few public representatives of a national party were using foul language and it is not good for the future generation. "No individual should be targeted. Political leaders are losing respect with such comments," he said.

Sukhender Reddy, recalling how humble the leaders like Lal Krishna Advani and Jaipal Reddy used to be, said, "Most of the members in Lok Sabha are now dominated by the saffron clad leaders. Out of the 543 MPs, 316 are newcomers in politics... they are coming like direct recruitment. Connect with people is gone. Earlier we used to have leaders who grew from grassroots level but now it is not the case." Sukhender Reddy reiterated that KT Rama Rao had all the qualifications to become the Chief Minister.

He has good command over English, Urdu and Telugu. He is dynamic and also has capability to do well in administration. He said that the election result and administrations were totally different. "NTR and Channa Reddy were good administrators but they lost the elections. Victories and defeats are part of politics," said Sukhender Reddy.