Hyderabad: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is set to hold a mammoth public rally, billed as the ‘mother of all meetings’, in the outskirts of the city on Sunday amid speculation that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is planning to call early elections.
There has been no official word on early polls and all eyes are on the meeting to see what KCR would say. He is the only speaker scheduled to address the gathering. A meeting of the state cabinet has been also convened Sunday afternoon ahead of the public meeting.
The 'Pragati Nivedana Sabha' (meeting to report progress) at Kongara Kalan on the outskirts of the city would see Rao speaking on the progress made in various sectors during the last four years, TRS sources said.
Arrangements are being made for the meeting with food and shelter also provided to those who reach the venue by Saturday night, they said. About 25 lakh people are expected to take part, they said.
State IT and Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao said Friday that discussions had been held in the party on advancement of the Assembly polls, but no decision has yet been taken. Legislative Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year.
However, it is being speculated that the TRS government may opt for early polls on the presumption that there is a positive mood among people on the government. The speculation has also gained ground with transfers of officials, including IAS officers, during the last several days.
Rao, who addressed mediapersons more than a fortnight ago, did not give a direct reply on reports of early assembly election, but said the Election Commission has the discretion to conduct it within six months of the original schedule. He said various surveys by the party indicated that TRS would win about 100 seats (out of 119) in the assembly polls.
Regional rival Congress has claimed that KCR is trying to advance the process as a “last ditch" attempt to protect his party from the “rising Congress wave”.
State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has alleged that the ruling TRS has failed to fulfil a single major election promise. “Tremendous public response to the recent visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Hyderabad had sent shockwaves among TRS leaders. With the Congress party gaining strength organisationally across the state, Rao has already sensed a humiliating defeat in the next polls,” he said.
“As a last attempt to protect his party from the rising Congress wave, the chief minister is going for early polls," he said.
But Rao must realise that he cannot stop a "Congress tsunami by any means," Reddy said in tele-conferences held with over 30,000 booth-level and mandal presidents of the party across the state.
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