Elections In Telangana: CEC To Decide In Seven Days

With the early elections talk hitting a feverish pitch in Telangana, Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat today said that the Election Commission was yet to take a call on the issue of when to hold elections for Telangana in the wake of the dissolution of the Assembly, and that it would decide in seven days.

Talking to mediapersons in Delhi, the CEC clarified that he had heard out Telangana government Advisor Rajiv Sharma, other officials and others from Telangana on the early polls issue. The EC, he said, was bound to hold elections within six months of the dissolution of the Assembly of any state as per a Supreme Court directive, and that a decision on Telangana would be taken soon.

Rawat also said that for Telangana the elections would be conducted either in November or December, or in May of next year, and that the date was yet to be finalized, but that the EC was seriously looking into conducting them early, along with those for the four other States going to polls next. He said that it would not be right to comment on the schedule before obtaining a report from the state CEO on the poll-preparedness of the state.

On TRS chief and Telangana caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's statement that polls would be conducted for Telangana in November, Rawat said that leaders ought not to talk on such things.

Meanwhile, CPI leaders S Sudhakar Reddy and K Narayana met Rawat and complained against KCR talking about the schedule of the elections.