The suspense over the possible conduct of early elections in Telangana has come to an end with Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao finally ruling out such a possibility, after holding a marathon seven hour long meeting with his cabinet colleagues at his camp office Pragathi Bhavan on Wednesday night.
The leak from the TRS sources about the cabinet meeting was that KCR took the suggestions of the ministers on early polls without disclosing his mind till the end.
Except one or two ministers, almost all the cabinet colleagues advised him against going for early polls, as it would send a negative message into the people that the TRS was afraid of growing Congress party.
“If we are confident that we can win the elections anyway, as surveys indicated, where is the need for going for early polls and get a bad name? If we can win the early polls, we can as well win the same after another three months,” they argued.
KCR was initially said to be of the idea that if the Congress party wins the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to be held in November/December, it would have a serious impact on Telangana as well and hit the prospects of the TRS.
If Telangana also goes to polls along with these three states, the impact would be minimal and the TRS can retain power, even with a lesser margin.
But after talking to ministers, KCR has realised that the party MLA and ministers are not ready for the elections as they are not in a position to bear the burden of elections six months ahead and take risk. If the MLAs are not ready, the party might not win even the early elections.
So, it is better to enjoy the full term and let the elections be held as scheduled. In any case, going for early elections turned out to be bad omen for the ruling parties in the Telugu states in the past –TDP lost power in 1989 and 2004, when it went for elections ahead of the original schedule.
That is why, KCR backtracked on early polls idea!