The announcement of schedule for the Lok Sabha and some state assemblies by the Election Commission of India on Sunday had been on cards, but what is shocking is the time given for the elections in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Especially for Andhra Pradesh, which is going to polls both for the state assembly as well as Lok Sabha, the schedule is very tight.
There is hardly 31 days for the polling which is going to be held on April 11. The nomination process begins on March 18 and closes by March 25.
It means all the political parties – the Telugu Desam Party, the YSR Congress party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, Jana Sena Party and the Congress have very little time in finalizing their candidates, let alone beginning of their election campaign.
After the closure of the nominations, the parties will have only 15 days’ time for campaigning.
Initially, the parties were under the impression that the elections would be held in the last week of April.
Particularly, the information that came from Delhi was that they would be held on April 30. So, all the parties probably thought they would have sufficient time in the selection of candidates.
But EC’s announcement of holding polls in AP on April 11 came as a big shock for them. They are now rushing the process of candidates’ selection.
According to sources, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has finalized candidates for nearly 125 assembly constituencies and a dozen MP seats.
On the other hand, YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy is also quickly completing the exercise for selection of candidates. He is expected to do it by March 15.
The other parties like BJP, Congress and Jana Sena are yet start the exercise. It remains to be seen how they would expedite the selection process in the coming days.