The election atmosphere in Telangana is hotting up gradually with the Election Commission announcing the schedule for the state assembly elections.
The polling will be held on December 7 and the results would be out by Dec 11. The new government will be in place by December 15.
While the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi is far ahead of the others in declaration of candidates and commencement of the election campaign, the main opposition parties – the Congress, the TDP and Telangana Jana Samithi also began their electioneering in their own way, though they are yet to formalise the Maha Kootami or grand alliance.
Surprisingly, there is no word yet from YSR Congress party headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and Jana Sena Party headed by actor Pawan Kalyan on contesting the assembly elections in Telangana, though they, too, have their existence in this state.
In fact, YSRC had three MLAs and an MP in 2014 elections, but of course, all of them joined the TRS later. Yet, the party still has Telangana unit and has some cadre base here and there. But so far, there has been no word from the party bosses about the contest in the Telangana polls.
Coming to Jana Sena, Pawan Kalyan has made several statements in the past that his party would definitely contest the Telangana assembly elections, though he did not say how many seats his party would fight for.
Even a couple of months ago, Pawan Kalyan had a series of meetings with his party leaders on Telangana elections.
He even had entered into an agreement with the CPI (M) on seat sharing. This has created an impression that his party would be in the fray for elections.
But sources say when the Telangana leaders met him a couple of days ago, Pawan told them that it would be waste of energy, money and efforts to contest the elections in Telangana, as it is unlikely to win even a single seat.
If the party cannot win even a considerable percentage of votes and at least three or four seats in Telangana, it would have its serious impact on the prospects of the Jana Sena in Andhra Pradesh.
So, it is better to keep away from polls in Telangana, rather than facing the humiliation, he reportedly told them!