Process for Telangana polls kicks off; TRS to go it alone against Oppn, BJP

AIMIM is also going solo and fielding candidates in places considered its strongholds, including the old city of Hyderabad

The notification for elections to the Telangana State Legislative Assembly was issued on Monday. The state is going to the polls on December 7, covering all the 119 Assembly constituencies, including 19 SC and 12 ST reserved segments.  

The election process gets underway with the filing of nominations from the day of issuance of notification. The last date for filing of nominations is on November 19, while the final list of eligible candidates in the fray will be announced on November 22. The polling will be held on a single day for all the Assembly seats in the state on December 7, while the counting of votes will take place on December 11, along with the counting process in other poll-bound states. 

On September 6, 2018, Governor E S L Narasimhan dissolved the state legislative assembly, eight months ahead of schedule, on the recommendation of the council of ministers headed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government had decided to go for early elections citing 'political fragility', among other reasons, in the state. In the normal course, the Assembly elections were to be held in April and May in 2019, along with the Lok Sabha polls. 

The state has about 27.3 million registered voters and this number is expected to rise marginally after the publication of the second supplementary voter list on November 19. About 32,791 polling stations are being set up to allow the registered voters to exercise their voting right in the ensuing elections.

The TRS is fighting the elections single-handedly, while the Opposition parties led by Congress have formed an electoral alliance to put up a combined fight against the ruling party. Fighting a lone battle, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier announced that it was going to field its candidates in all the 119 constituencies. The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (AI MIM) party, too, is going solo and fielding candidates in places considered its strongholds, including the old city of Hyderabad.  

The previous Assembly elections were held in the undivided Andhra Pradesh in April-May 2014 even though the governments of residual AP and Telangana were formed on the basis of these elections with the formal state bifurcation on June 2, 2014.