No early polls in Telangana, KCR tells TRS leaders

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Tuesday put an end to speculation over the possibility of the early dissolution of the Legislative Assembly for snap elections, by telling TRS MPs, MLAs and MLCs that the polls will be held in December 2023, as per schedule, according to sources.

The Chief Minister also assured tickets to all MLAs and stated that TRS was bound to score an unprecedented “hat-trick” in 2023, by winning at least 95 of the 119 seats.

As per sources, Rao termed Congress a “closed chapter” in Indian politics and said that the TRS’s “war” against the BJP would continue. However, there was no discussion on the party’s conversion into the BRS, approvals for which are expected by the year-end.

Rao addressed a meeting of party officials at Telangana Bhavan for nearly three hours. He is also learnt to have asked MLAs and ministers to ensure their availability in their respective constituencies, and resolve public issues on a war footing.

The Chief Minister also sought constituency-wise progress reports on the implementation of various developmental programmes and directed elected representatives to hold ‘atmeeya sammelans’ with the people, interact with them over food, enquire about their grievances and address the same.

He asked MLAs to appoint an incharge for every 100 voters, termed as the ‘Munugode model’, and send the list of incharges to the party office immediately.

Further, Rao is learnt to have directed MLAs to raise the alarm and give a strong rebuttal to those trying to lure them away from the TRS.

“Tell such people loudly that I will hit you with chappal,” Rao reportedly told his party leaders.

He said that BJP agents approached his daughter Kavita as well, asking her to join the saffron party.

Rao also cautioned those in attendance to be prepared to face raids from central agencies, allegedly claiming that the BJP would misuse the CBI, ED and I-T Department to weaken the TRS.