Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will hold Cabinet meeting for the second time within a week’s span amidst speculation that he is seeking advancement of elections to the State Legislative Assembly.
Though the date of the meeting has not been specified, an official note circulated by the General Administration (Cabinet) Department as “most urgent” mentioned that the meeting of the State Cabinet will be held shortly. The special chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries have been requested to send the Cabinet proposals duly approved in circulation for consideration of the Council of Ministers to the GAD immediately i.e. by Monday evening. Sources said the meeting is likely to be held on Tuesday afternoon.
The development assumes significance as it comes amid the talk of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi government’s moves to advance the elections to the Legislative Assembly by a few months.
The term of the present Assembly which met for the first time on June 9, 2014 is set to expire on June 8 next year, but the Chief Minister had been dropping indications of opting for elections afresh to the legislative Assembly early.
The Chief Minister is learnt to be examining a proposal to dissolve the Legislative Assembly and communicate the same to the Election Commission so that election in Telangana could be held alongside that of four other States - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh and Mizoram - that are going to polls around October and November.
The decision, sources said, should be taken ahead of the announcement of election schedule for the four States so that the election authority could club the election to Telangana Assembly with that of the four States. Provisions under the Representation of Peoples Act 1951 too specify that other than dissolution of the existing Legislative Assembly, no notification should be issued at any time earlier than six months prior to the date on which the duration of the Assembly would expire.
This would in turn mean that there would be no scope for issuing election notification in Telangana after December 8.
Doubts are, however, being expressed about securing the Election Commission’s nod for early elections in the State.
A section of officials are citing the resignation of the YSR Congress MPs a couple of months ago and the EC’s inaction in notifying bypolls more than two and a half months after the resignations had been accepted by the Lok Sabha Speaker.
The Chief Minister is learnt to have made his intentions, to advance the elections in the State, clear Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with the latter in New Delhi on August 25.
Coming in this backdrop, the conduct of the meeting of the State Cabinet has given rise to intense speculation over the possibility of advanced elections to the State Assembly.
