Amid speculations of early polls, Telangana cabinet to meet today; KCR may announce assembly dissolution

While speculations have been rife about the advancement of assembly polls in Telangana, sources said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao may announce the dissolution of the state assembly on Sunday, calling for fresh polls, along with state elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram later this year.

The Telangana state cabinet is scheduled to meet at 1 pm on Sunday ahead of its famous Pragathi Nivedhana Sabha, what is being touted as the largest public meeting in Indian history, later this afternoon. The Pragathi Nivedhana Sabha will take place over a land of 2,000 acres in Ranga Reddy district, Telangana.

#Visuals from Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) rally venue in Ranga Reddy district, rally to be held later today and will addressed by CM Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao. #Telangana pic.twitter.com/7FDYs297tX

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2018

"The turnout in this rally is going to be something that people will remember for a long time, it is going to be the biggest political rally ever held in India," Telangana municipal administration and IT minister KT Rama Rao said ahead of Pragathi Nivedhana Sabha in the state.

Read | Why Centre must give up the idea of simultaneous polls to Parliament and assemblies

Meanwhile, briefing about the state cabinet meeting, KTR told NDTV, "You can expect important political announcements by our party leader. And after this meeting, the political climate in the state will most certainly heat up". KTR, however, did not confirm the decision to dissolve the TRS government for the advancement of elections in the state.

Interestingly, September 2 is also the fourth anniversary of Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government. In 2014, Chandrasekhar Rao took charge as the chief minister of Telangana and as per the schedule, assembly polls in the state were expected to take place simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Now, amid the buzz over early polls in Telangana, the Congress has threatened the ruling TRS to move court against assembly dissolution, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that Rao needs to explain why he has changed his mind about the idea of simultaneous polls in the country.

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“If that is not done, there will be scope for legal options and we are ready to adopt those. We will move the court,” senior Congress leader M Shashidhar Reddy warned the TRS.

BJP's state unit president K Laxman, on the other hand, said if the TRS president had earlier supported the idea of simultaneous polls in the country, he needs to tell people why he wants to go for early polls in the state.