Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president and Telangana information technology minister KT Rama Rao on Tuesday predicted that elections to the state assembly might not be held in December as per schedule, but might get postponed by another three months.
“If the elections to the Telangana assembly have to be held in December, the election schedule has to be announced in the first week of October. But I don’t think it will happen,” KTR, as the chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s son is popularly called, told reporters.
He said the assembly elections in Telangana might take place only after six months, maybe in April, simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections. However, there will be clarity on the simultaneous elections after the special session of Parliament to be held next week,” he said.
The Union government has formed a high-level committee led by former president Ram Nath Kovind to make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections.
KTR said in the event of simultaneous elections to Telangana assembly and Lok Sabha, KCR would continue as the caretaker chief minister till the election process is completed, and that this situation would help him to implement more development and welfare schemes.
He asserted that the BRS would come to power in Telangana for the third consecutive term, irrespective of whether there would be simultaneous elections or not. “We are sure to win 90 out of 119 assembly seats,” he said.
KTR said the people of Telangana had no faith in the Congress, as they won’t accept parties with slave mentality. “These leaders of so-called national parties have mortgaged their self-respect with Delhi bosses. The people have to decide between genuine Telangana protagonists and slaves of Delhi,” he said.
Senior Congress leader and Bhongir parliamentarian Komatireddy Venkat Reddy shot back at KTR saying the people of the state were very much aware of the slave mentality of the BRS leadership. “They know very well how the case against KTR’s sister Kalvakuntla Kavitha has come to a halt after he met Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi,” he said.
Reddy said it was the Congress party which had sacrificed a lot for the sake of Telangana statehood. “KTR has forgotten the fact that his father had openly praised Sonia Gandhi on the floor of the assembly for granting statehood to Telangana. If the Congress had no role in Telangana formation, why did KCR and his family members had met Sonia Gandhi for thanksgiving in 2014?” he asked.
Meanwhile, BJP national vice-president DK Aruna said the talk of simultaneous polls to Telangana assembly and Lok Sabha was purely hypothetical. “We are sure that the state assembly elections will be held in December as scheduled,” she said.
