KCR hinting at mid-term polls: Shabbir Ali

Hyderabad, June 3 (INN): Leader of Opposition in Telangana State Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was hinting at mid-term Assembly elections in 2017.

Addressing a press conference at Congress Legislature Party office here on Friday, Shabbir Ali pointed out that the Chief Minister, while addressing the second anniversary celebrations of Telangana Formation Day on 2nd June at Parade Grounds, promised irrigation of one crore acres of land by 2022. Similarly, he promised a drought free State by 2022. "KCR got a mandate only till 2019. Therefore, he should speak about projects or schemes that he intends to complete by 2019. By saying 2022, KCR gave a clear hint that he might go for mid-term elections for State Assembly anytime in 2017. Only by this logic, he would get another term till 2022, if he wins the polls," he said.

Shabbir Ali said that the Telangana was all set to face "mini-elections" soon. KCR has engineered defection of 23 MLAs, two Lok Sabha MPs and over a dozen MLCs belonging to opposition parties to TRS. Although Speaker S. Madhusudan Chary has delayed the decision on disqualification petitions filed by the respective parties, the High Court and Supreme Court would certainly do justice in this matter. "The legislators and MPs have violated the Anti-Defection Law and they are bound to face disqualification as per Schedule 10. Instead of facing by-elections in 23 Assembly and two Lok Sabha constituencies, KCR might prefer mid-term polls for the entire Assembly," he said.

He said that the Congress party has already approached the High Court while including the names of a few more legislators who defected to the TRS recently. He hoped that the courts would take a serious view of these defections.

Shabbir Ali also accused the Chief Minister of making a new set of fake promises from Parade Grounds in Secunderabad on three different occasions. "Immediately after taking over as the Chief Minister of Telangana on 2nd June, 2014, KCR promised increase in salaries of employees at par with those of central government staff; Health Cards to all employees; Rs. 1 lakh crore for welfare of SCs, BCs, STs and minorities; Waiver of Rs. 1 lakh crop loans; 2BHK houses for all weaker section families and transformation of Hyderabad into a global city. None of these promises were fulfilled completely, he said.

Similarly, on 2nd June, 2015, KCR promised notifications to fill 25,000 posts within a month's time. He also reiterated the promise of 12% reservation for Muslims and STs. He also announced construction of 50,000 double bedroom houses for the poor and regularisation of all contract employees from July 2015 onwards. These promises too remained unfulfilled, he said.

Shabbir Ali said instead of being accountable and giving the status of promises made earlier, KCR came up with a new set of promises while addressing the Telangana Formation Day celebrations on Thursday. This time he promised 14-15 new districts by Dussera; Rs 2 lakh crore budget in 2019-2020; 24-hour three-phase power and resolution of drinking water problem. "He never responded to the Congress party's demand for a White Paper on the status of developmental programmes taken up by the TRS Government and also the debt position. The State Government released 4-5 page advertisements in all the newspapers. But it did not find space to add two sentences to reply to our demand. This clearly shows that KCR and his government does not want to be accountable for anything," he said.

When asked whether Congress party was ready to face mid-term polls, Shabbir Ali said any political party would always be ready to face elections.