Rao: Confident of winning 100 seats, will return as CM

Telangana assembly: K Chandrasekhar Rao likely to recommend dissolution

HYDERABAD: As expected, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday recommended the dissolution of the assembly eight months before its term ends, paving the way for early elections in the state which may now be held in November-December, along with four other states.Though for the record, Rao gave “political fragility” in the state and the “unlimited idiocy of Congress” as the two reasons for advancing the polls, insiders in the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi said the move was aimed at keeping the focus on the CM’s position as the “architect” of Telangana. They said facing the assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha polls would have seen Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the opposition Congress muscling in on Rao’s home turf and turning the attention away from the TRS chief.Rao called a meeting of the cabinet in the afternoon where the resolution to dissolve the assembly was passed unanimously. He then drove to the Raj Bhavan and communicated the decision to governor E S L Narasimhan. A Raj Bhavan communique said the governor, while accepting the cabinet’s recommendation, has asked Rao to continue as caretaker CM.TOI had reported in its edition on September 6 that Rao was all set to recommend dissolution on Thursday (September 6) as he considers number 6 lucky for him.The CM said he had already consulted the Election Commission on advancing the elections and expressed confidence that Telangana would go to polls in November-December, along with Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. “We have done our spadework,” Rao said.Rao, who is also president of TRS, took the opposition by surprise by announcing tickets for 105 of the 119 seats soon after recommending the dissolution of the House. He said he would return as CM after the polls as TRS was certain to win 100 seats. He described AIMIM as a friendly party.Holding Congress responsible for his decision to advance polls, Rao said at a press conference: “Because of the day in and day out criticism by Congress, there is a chance of development being affected. It is in the interest of the state that I have chosen to make a sacrifice of the remainder of our term.” He added that the elections will “teach a lesson to Congress”.He said his powers as caretaker CM will not be curtailed. “There is no such term as caretaker CM in the Constitution, but I will not cross limitations,” he said. In the same breath, he said in his capacity as TRS president, he will announce the manifesto of the party for which there will be no restrictions.There was speculation about KCR calling for early polls right from August 14 when he announced that TRS would organise a huge public meeting on September 2 and that he would also announce the list of TRS candidates for the next polls. After this, a number of IAS, IPS and other officers were transferred, which pointed to the possibility of the elections being advanced.