A day after Assembly dissolution, KCR kicks off poll campaign
Hyderabad, Sep 7 : A day after dissolving Telangana Assembly, caretaker Chief Minister and TRS chief K. Chandrashekhar Rao on Friday launched his party's election campaign, seeking fresh mandate and targeting Congress party.
Addressing a public meeting in Husnabad constituency in his home district Siddipet, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) sounded the poll bugle and sought people's blessings for another term to make "golden Telangana' a reality.
Listing out the major welfare schemes and development works undertaken by his government during the last four years, Rao assured people that any additional wealth generated by the state will be spent on their welfare.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, considers Husnabad a lucky place. It was from here that he had launched 2014 poll campaign. Husnabad is among 105 constituencies for which KCR announced the candidates on Thursday.
Titled "Praja Ashirwada Sabha", this was the first of 100 meetings to be addressed by KCR covering 100 constituencies over the next 50 days.
The TRS chief expects Assembly polls in November. The Election Commission on Friday decided to send a team to Hyderabad on September 11 to make an assessment of the poll preparedness in the state.
KCR wondered why the opposition parties, who were so far claiming to be ready for elections anytime, are now afraid of facing polls.
He launched a bitter attack on the Congress party blaming it for all the problems faced by Telangana in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He said the Congress leaders of Telangana were only working as slaves to their high command in Delhi.
KCR told people that he dissolved the Assembly and going for early polls in the interest of the state.
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Cong performed better in Kerala, anti-incumbency trends influenced WB, TN: CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday said the Congress had largely met or exceeded expectations in several States, even as results in some regions reflected shifting voter sentiments.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said the party accepted the mandate in Assam while performing better than anticipated in Kerala.
He also pointed to possible anti-incumbency trends influencing outcomes in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
“In Assam, we got the expected result, and we accept the people’s mandate. In Kerala, we have won more seats than expected. We anticipated around 76 to 80, but we have gone up to around 95,” Siddaramaiah said.
In West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, there may have been an anti-incumbency trend, and that could have influenced the results, he added.
Siddaramaiah also extended his congratulations to a new political entrant in Tamil Nadu, noting the emergence of a different electoral dynamic in the State.
“I congratulate the new entrant who has achieved success there,” he added.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said electoral outcomes in some States had diverged from the party’s internal assessments, reflecting evolving voter expectations.
“We expected a certain trend, but the results have been different. Political reading was wrong in some places,” he said.
“People were looking for change in some States, and that has been reflected in the results,” Shivakumar, who is also the Congress Karnataka unit president, said.
Referring to Kerala, he said the Congress-led alliance had benefited from public sentiment.
“There was already an expectation based on local body elections, and people had shown confidence in us. That has translated into a strong result,” the Deputy Chief Minister said.
On Tamil Nadu, he acknowledged that the scale of political shift had come as a surprise.
“We expected to secure around 30 to 40 per cent of the vote share, but such a major shift was not anticipated. It shows that voter expectations were different,” he said.
Shivakumar added that electoral outcomes underscored the need for better political assessment in future.
“We have to understand these changes carefully. Political reading cannot go wrong like this,” he said.
