Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has dissolved the state assembly and is going for early elections in November/December, while his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu wants to continue in power till the completion of his full term.
So, compared to Naidu, KCR is under compulsion to appease people first, rather than Naidu.
But on Monday, Naidu came up with a decision that gave a big relief to the people – reduction of Rs 2 per litre of petrol and diesel in Value Added Tax.
Since there are no immediate elections in AP, Naidu could claim that he had understood the pain of the people and hence, took the decision, though as a matter of fact, AP has the highest VAT on diesel and petrol.
In Rajasthan, too, the BJP government reduced the VAT on petrol and diesel by four per cent, obviously in view of the forthcoming elections.
Though AP and Rajasthan governments’ decisions put a psychological pressure on KCR to take a similar decision on petroleum prices, the Telangana chief minister is unmoved in this direction, leading to criticism from the opposition.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Capt N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the TRS government was equally responsible for this situation.
He said that the tax on petrol and diesel in Telangana was highest among 23 States in the country.
He demanded that KCR also bring down the tax rate on petrol and diesel, so as give relief to the consumers.