Telangana goes into poll mode

Hyderabad: The election heat is picking up fast in the Telangana state. On one hand Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting the state on Tuesday for the second time in two days and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will come on October 10.

The BJP proposes to announce the list of candidates next week. On the other hand, Ministers K T Rama Rao and T Harish Rao are on a whirlwind tour of the state. Not to be left behind, the Congress is going from door to door with its six-guarantees card. Speculations are rife that the team of officials from the Election Commission of India are here to review the government’s preparedness.

These fast-paced political developments are putting pressure on the heads of the three parties -- BRS, Congress and BJP. For BRS, ensuring the victory of the party candidates and overcoming the negative impact of an undercurrent of anti-incumbency is one major challenge more so because most of the sitting MLAs have been announced as the candidates.

The Congress party though ready with the list is unable to announce as it fears that there could be large scale rebels who may upset the party’s apple cart. The BJP which badly slipped is yet to announce the candidates and is said to be contemplating to come up with a list during the second week of October.

It is learnt that KCR had received reports that the recent restrictions imposed by the police on techies who came on roads opposing the arrest of Chandrababu Naidu could have adverse impact in about 24 constituencies where the Andhra population settled in the Telangana region about six decades back are in large numbers.

In addition, KCR has been getting feedback from districts about the unhappiness of people in certain constituencies where the MLAs failed to fulfil the assurances and did not complete pending projects.

Hence, KCR had rushed MLAs to the constituencies and asked them to take corrective measures or else they may have to forego B form.

TPCC president Revanth Reddy prevailed upon the AICC not to announce the list of candidates for the present as it could lead to large scale problem from rebels. He informed the party high command that if this problem erupts, BRS may poach some of the rebels who can cause damage to the Congress candidate in constituencies where the party was strong. The TPCC feels that it is strong enough to win in about 40 constituencies.

More than 1,000 ticket aspirants are waiting for the release of the list. Some of those who miss the bus will quit Congress and jump over to BRS, he briefed the high command. The BJP has an uphill task as it is difficult to find strong candidates. Moreover, it has lost the ground badly after the Karnataka Assembly election results.

Leaders said that Kishan Reddy first focused attention on 24 assembly segments in the Greater Hyderabad limits to shortlist strong candidates but is facing problems in finding winning horses in the districts particularly in old Nalgonda, Khammam, Medak, Nizamabad and Warangal.