Telangana goes to polls on November 30, leaving those in the political fray, only a little over a month to woo, convince or sway the voters. The tenure of the current 119-member assembly will end on January 19, 2024.
For the 119 assembly seats in the state, the voting will be held across a total of 35,356 polling stations and the results declared on December 3. Even though the election code of conduct kicked in on October 9, a month is a lot of time in politics for things to go any of the ways or even hay wire.
As the elections approach closer, reportedly, on Sunday four-time MLA V Chandar Rao, along with 1,000 other BRS leaders, including Bura Pula Reddy, Mahbub Jani joined the Congress in the presence of MP N Uttam Kumar. The reason for the switch is said to be internal friction among party members on allocation of tickets.
Will Bharat Rashtra Samithi retain its power?
In Telangana, it is a triangular fight among three major parties, namely the ruling BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi), Congress and the BJP. Currently the state has BRS government led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the last nine and half years. Unfazed by the anti-incumbency factor, BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao has claimed that Telangana's development and welfare of its people will help the party come back to form a third successive government.
As per the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis by news agency PTI, it is still challenging for any party to match Chief Minister KCR's image as the sole driving force behind Telangana's statehood.
Will the Congress sweep the elections?
If the previous assembly elections held in 2018 are any indicator, Congress can harbor hopes for this election. In 2018, BRS bagged 88 out of the 119 assembly seats, with Congress coming at a distant second with 19 seats, while the BJP bagged only one seat.
For the upcoming elections, Congress has fielded party state unit chief Anumala Revanth from Kodangal, former Telangana Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy from Huzurnagar.
According to the India Today-C Voter survey, there's no single party that can hope to attain a majority at the upcoming Telangana elections, because of which it might be heading for a hung assembly.
As per the statistics tossed by the survey, Congress was likely to emerge the single largest party with 54 seats, followed by the BRS with 49 and the BJP coming a distant third with eight seats. Meanwhile, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is set to address an election rally in the Mahabubnagar district on October 31.
Does BJP have an edge?
A week after the Congress released its first list of 55 candidates for the Telangana polls on October 15, the BJP released its first list of Telangana candidates on October 22. The list of 52 candidates also includes three sitting MPs, and controversial T Raja Singh, whose suspension over the offensive remarks against Prophet Mohammed was revoked on Sunday.
Raja Singh will be contesting from Goshmahal constituency. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will be locking horns with Rajender Etala, who is a former member of the BRS itself. Etala will be fielding from two constituencies namely, Huzurabad and Gajwel. The three sitting MPs being fielded by BJP include the party's former Telangana President Sanjay Kumar Bandi, Bapu Rao Soyam and Arvind Dharmapuri.
The BJP in the meanwhile, is banking on an anti-incumbency wave to gather more strength in the assembly.
