Telangana Elections
KCR may not hand baton to son after polls
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi headed by Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is locked in a fierce battle with the Congress in the state assembly elections scheduled for November 30. The BJP campaign had picked up about a month back, but the party is now relegated to a distant third position due to differences within the state unit which led to the change of party president in July this year. BRS sources dismissed reports that the party’s victory would see KCR making way for his son, K T Rama Rao, as the next chief minister. They said that KCR has elaborate expansion plans to turn BRS into a national party.
Telangana shares close to a thousand kilometer border with Maharashtra. Telangana government schemes such as Ryuthu Bandhu and Dalit Bandhu are viewed with much interest by the Maharashtrians living on the Telangana border. Sources said KCR wants BRS to contest close to 10 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra in the 2024 election. He has made many trips to Maharashtra and has set up party units in hundreds of villages in about a dozen districts bordering Telangana. KCR has used his position as the chief minister and the attendant protocol in his expansion drive in the bordering states. Sources close to him said the chief minister plans to continue in the post until his party gains ground in a few other states and gets a national status.
Battle of Northeast
Zoramthanga is out of tune in his swan song
The northeastern state of Mizoram, which is scheduled to go in for election on November 7, is unlikely to see any pre-poll alliance. There are four parties in the fray – Mizo National Front (MNF) led by chief minister Zoramthanga, Congress, BJP, and the newly-formed Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM). The 79-year-old Zoramthanga, who is the senior-most politician in the state, is fighting his last election. And he has his back against the wall. The Congress, which was soundly defeated by the MNF in the last election, is gaining support.
So is the ZPM, which is headed by an ex-Indian Police Service officer Lalduhawma, who had won his first election as a Member of Parliament in 1984 on a Congress ticket. In the last assembly election, Lalduhawma had contested from two seats and won from both. The BJP had managed to win only one assembly seat in the last election from the predominantly Buddhist Chakma area. The party is trying to improve its performance by bringing prominent state politicians into its fold. There are reports that assembly Speaker Lalrinliana Sailo, who was denied ticket by the MNF, may contest as a BJP candidate. The BJP list may include some other big names. The main contest, however, is between the ruling MNF and the Congress. State watchers are predicting a hung house and a coalition government in the state.