The stage is being reportedly set for the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly in line with the reports on the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government’s intent to opt for early elections.
Hectic activity was witnessed on Tuesday in this direction with top bureaucrats calling on the Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan ostensibly to fix an appointment of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao with him in a day or two.
Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, government’s Chief Adviser Rajiv Sharma and Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary S. Narsing Rao were among those who called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan in the afternoon.
The Chief Minister is expected to meet the Governor and apprise him of the developments on the political front and the decision to dissolve the Assembly.
The development was preceded by a meeting convened by the Chief Secretary with Legislature Secretary V. Narasimha Chary and Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar in the Secretariat where he is learnt to have enquired about the readiness of the election authority in the event of early election.
The two meetings were held at the instance of the Chief Minister camping in his farm house at Yerravelli where he held deliberations with party colleagues including Ministers Eatala Rajender and T. Harish Rao and others with Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar in attendance.
The Chief Minister is learnt to have discussed with senior leaders about the poll preparedness and launch of the party’s election campaign.
Mr. Rao has accordingly finalised his schedule to address public meetings in different parts of the State starting with Praja Ashirvada Sabha (seeking people’s blessings) from Husnabad in erstwhile Karimnagar district on September 7. With fast paced developments on the political front, there is an intense debate among official circles about the date of the next Cabinet meeting.
The Chief Secretary had already issued a circular asking all senior officials to submit proposals awaiting Cabinet approval before 3 pm on Tuesday and the schedule of the meeting of the Council of Ministers is expected to be announced any minute. Several key issues including the announcement of interim relief to the government employees who are awaiting pay revision, enhancement of Asara pensions and sanction of land for different institutions, among others, await the ratification by the Cabinet and this will soon be followed by another meeting where the resolution on dissolving the Assembly is expected to be passed.
Sources said the developments indicate the likelihood of the Cabinet meeting to dissolve the Assembly on September 6. This would be much ahead of announcement of election schedule for four States - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram - enabling the State government to insist on clubbing the State’s elections with them so that a new Assembly could be in place before the end of the year.
Officials concerned were, however, tight lipped on the schedule of the Cabinet that would meet with a single agenda of Assembly dissolution. They merely said “ wait and watch”.
Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar informally speaking to mediapersons after meeting the Chief Secretary here on Tuesday said that the Election Commission was ready to hold elections whenever they were announced and it was for the Chief Election Commission to announce the elections and they would follow the directions of the CEC.
