KCR early poll plan only to scuttle Congress chances

​Hyderabad: Determined to prevent the Congress making any gains in Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is understood to have plumped for early elections for Assembly. He appears keen that the tally of Congress seats should go down significantly and this would be possible only when elections for Assembly are advanced.

The reasoning is that in simultaneous election, the impact of the fight between Rahul Gandhi and Modi at national level in Parliament elections might help the Congress in the state draw benefit from it and improve its tally in the Assembly polls.

That KCR is going for early elections was evident when he said he would announce the candidates for the Assembly seats in September, setting off speculation that he might go in for elections along with four north Indian states where polls are due in December.

The Chief Minister hinted that he would be kick starting the election campaign with his Pragathi Nivedika Sabha on September 2 which he says would go down in history as mother of all public meetings. The party leaders believe that the TRS chief was moving forward with clear vision and wants to ensure that the TRS will win a maximum number of seats in the state.

A senior leader in TRS said that the battle lines for 2019 general elections would be drawn between the BJP’s Narendra Modi and Congress’ Rahul Gandhi and the state-related issues would subside. The Congress is not a threat for TRS and it might get advantage given the option of Modi versus Rahul and the Congress might take advantage in the form of minority votes, said the TRS leader.

The TRS leader said that if the polls are held earlier, the issues would be limited to the state and later on the party could focus on getting more Lok Sabha seats in 2019. The Chief Minister is sure that the Congress cannot win in the Lok Sabha elections.

During the press conference on Monday, the Chief Minister said that Congress cannot win next elections. “Can the Congress leaders say that they will be winning at least 20 seats from the state,” he asked. The TRS leader said that in case the Assembly is dissolved, the elections may be held in December along with other four States of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram. The national leaders of Congress would be busy campaigning in those states.

Sources said that it is for this reason the TRS is not in favour of simultaneous polls on the proposal of one nation one poll. He said that the TRS government’s schemes would be enough to ensure government with more than 100 seats. Chandrashekar Rao had said that the Election Commission has already said that one nation one election was not possible. Sources said that the picture would be clear in September when the TRS supremo announces party candidates for the Assembly elections. Sources also said that candidates would be announced in about 80 per cent of the constituencies.