Contrary to the speculations that were doing in the media, it appears there will be no early elections to the Andhra Pradesh state assembly in November or December.
At a meeting with the party MLAs and constituency in-charges held at Tadepalli to review the Gadapa Gadapaku Prabhutvam programme, YSR Congress party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy ruled out the possibility of going in for early elections in the state.
“The chief minister categorically told us that there will be no early elections in the state. We shall complete the full term and go to the elections as per schedule,” state industries minister Gudivada Amarnath told reporters later.
Till a few days ago, there were strong rumours in the political circles that Jagan might opt for early elections to overcome the growing anti-incumbency. The last week’s meeting of Jagan with State Governor S Abdul Nazir led to these speculations.
There were reports that his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao had advised him to dissolve the assembly and go to the assembly elections at least six months in advance.
There were also reports that Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership is also bringing pressure on Jagan to go for early elections, so that he would have a smooth sailing in the 2014 general elections as well.
However, with the Jagan making it clear to the party leaders that his government would last full term, the speculations have died down.
Interestingly, the chief minister has also reportedly decided against reshuffling his cabinet, as was being discussed within the YSRC circles.
The sudden summoning of animal husbandry minister Seediri Apparaju to Tadepalli led to these speculations and even the minister did not rule it out.
However, during the Monday’s meeting, Jagan did not discuss the topic of cabinet reshuffle at all and instead, he said he did not want to antagonise any MLA hereafter.