In the list of Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidates Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced on Thursday, he dropped two sitting MLAs and said he would make up his mind in respect of another five MLAs after a relook at their candidature.
Barring them, he renominated all TRS MLAs in 105 constituencies and hoped to announce candidates for the remaining 14 seats in a week or 10 days.
Mr. Rao told the media he expected the election at the earliest along with polls to the Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram Assemblies.
“The election notification is expected in the first week of October, polls in November and results in December.”
His expectation was based on his interaction with the Chief Election Commissioner sometime back. Two senior officials from the State had also met the Election Commissioners, he said.
Mr. Rao denied that the State government had sought to advance elections as the process would have anyway started in January-February. The government sacrificed six months of its tenure to maintain the growth process in the background of continuous attempts of the Congress to scuttle it. The Congress stepped up its campaign as the elections neared which impacted growth and demoralised officials.
He said he decided to go to the “people’s court” to check the “false campaign in toto” and maintain revenue growth which averaged out to 21.96% in the last five months.
