Telangana Assembly Dissolved For Early Elections

The TRS government headed by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday dissolved the Telangana Legislative Assembly, the first after the creation of the Telangana state, to pave the way for early elections in the state.

The state cabinet meeting, chaired by the Chief Minister in Pragathi Bhavan this afternoon, passed a one-line resolution recommending the dissolution of the Assembly, nine months earlier than the expiry of its tenure, thus drawing the curtains on the fortnight-long intense suspense in this regard.

Governor E S L Narasimhan, on receiving the cabinet's resolution handed over to him by the Chief Minister at Raj Bhavan, accepted the same and asked KCR to head a caretaker government in the state until a newly elected government took charge. The Chief Minister consented to the same.

Known for his political sagacity, KCR, who has been keeping his cards close to his chest about his plan to retain power in the state by advancing the elections, finally bit the bullet today. While intense political and administrative activity, including top officials of the state including the Special Advisor to the Government, State Election Commission officials and others meeting the Chief Election Commissioner in New Delhi recently and the Chief Minister himself meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other union ministers, had been giving enough indications for several days now that KCR had something up his sleeve, the CM finally decided to dissolve the Assembly only days before the deadline.

The Congress and other opposition parties launching a vitriolic attack on the TRS government, inputs from intelligence agencies suggesting moves by the opposition parties to forge an anti-TRS front before the elections, and the upbeat mood in the Congress after Rahul Gandhi's two-day visit last month may have made KCR decide to, well, just do it.

Now the ball is in the Chief Election Commission's court, who needs to decide whether to club the elections in Telangana with those in the four other states going to the polls in December.