Hyderabad: AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is planning to take advantage if his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao goes for early polls to the assembly. He wants to checkmate TRS in some constituencies where TD has a strong cadre. In particular, Hyderabad, where he is known as the man who put it on the world map.
In the GHMC limits, there are 24 assembly constituencies and except in the old city, settlers are more in number in the remaining seats. In Khammam too, people are more influenced by AP rather than Telangana since it is a border district. TD leaders claim they have a strong cadre in Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Warangal and Adilabad districts.
TD leaders said that if Telangana assembly elections were held separately, CM Naidu would have time to concentrate and also to campaign and therefore attract the settlers in and around Hyderabad city and this would help the party win some seats. However, if elections were held for both AP and Telangana assemblies along with the Lok Sabha CM, he would be tied down to AP.
Apart from this, Telangana TD was facing the problem of finance and therefore leaders were not in a position to spend money in the elections. However, if TS assembly elections were held separately, the TD leadership could provide funds to candidates in some important constituencies where the party had a chance to win.
According to Telangana TD leaders, in 30 to 40 assembly constituencies they had a strong cadre and could win 20 seats. Even though two TD MLAs had defected, the remaining ones and the TD cadre in their constituencies were with TD.
According to a TD leader, if the Congress and TD had an alliance, they would sweep the elections. In the past AP CM Naidu had said several times that if his party won 15 to 20 seats in Telangana, he would be a kingmaker. According to Naidu’s assessment in Telangana, TRS or Cong-ress would not be able to get a majority on their own. In which case, Karnataka assembly results could repeat in Telangana in the coming elections.
