SNCN ACHARYULU
Hyderabad
All political parties are awaiting the EC notification for the Telangana Assembly elections. All major political parties are ready to face the Assembly elections.
There are speculations that the Election Commission may announce the schedule for the Telangana Assembly elections next month.
Once the election schedule is announced by the Election Commission the Code of Conduct will come into force immediately. After that, the government cannot implement new schemes. Keeping this in view, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has directed officials that all pending schemes should be completed by the end of August.
Political parties expect that the Election Commission may announce the schedule in September and are completing their exercise for selecting candidates to announce the first list this month.
Sitting BRS MLAs and hopefuls in opposition parties are worried about whether their names will be in the first list or not. They will feel insecure if their names are not on the first list.
Assembly elections are likely to be held in October or November. Political parties are already in election mode. Their leaders are touring rural areas and interacting with people. While the ruling BRS is confident of a hat-trick the main opposition Congress also has hopes of coming to power. Two Assembly elections were held after the formation of the Telangana state and in both the BRS came to power.
The Congress failed in protecting its main opposition party status in the Assembly after winning the required number of seats. Congress MLAs ditched their party and joined the BRS.
This time the Congress is taking precautions to prevent defections after Assembly elections.
The BJP is also aiming to come to power in Telangana after losing power in Karnataka. But the BJP has given up its earlier aggressive attitude.
The defeat in Karnataka, the changing of the state party president and speculations about an understanding with the BRS have watered down the hopes of BJP cadres about coming to power.
