Rama Krishna Sangem
Congress is ahead in most of the exit polls on Telangana assembly elections, held on November 30, Thursday. Still the party leaders are planning to shift their elected MLAs to camps, fearing a hung assembly. Sources in the party told Excel India immediately after the exit polls that there was a chance of a hung assembly, as per a few of the exit polls.
Of the total 12 exit polls from reputed and established agencies, 9 give clear majority to Congress, while one predicted simple majority to ruling BRS. The remaining two exit polls said Congress will be the single largest party, but may fall short of full majority. Some more exit polls including India Today’s are expected by December 1, Friday night. Still, the authenticity of these exit polls is questioned by BRS working president KTR.
KTR dismissed the exit polls saying they came wrong many times in the past, while Telangana Pradesh Congress President Revanth Reddy almost endorsed them. BJP which talked of coming to power and making a person from BCs as the next CM, but now the party seems to have reconciled to the below 12 seats tally. Still, its state unit president and union minister Kishan Reddy said they will get “good results”.
DK proposes MLAs camp
Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shiva Kumar is believed to have proposed to shift all the newly elected Congress MLAs to one or two resorts – preferably in Hyderabad or somewhere in Karnataka, in case the party finishes just short of the magic half way mark – 60 seats – on December 3, Sunday. “We are thinking of shifting them – those with bright winning chances to safe places even before that,” said a Congress’ war room functionary.
If Congress falls short of 60 seats, though emerges as the single largest party in the 119 seats assembly, the party may not have numbers to stake claim to form the government. The party should be able to convince the Governor that they can form the government. If a hung assembly comes, BRS too may rush to stake claim to form the government, with the help of AIMIM, which may bag 5-7 seats.
BJP too is likely to prefer a BRS led government, rather than a Congress government in Telangana, keeping in view its focus on coming Lok Sabha elections April-May 2024. BRS leader KCR would be in a better place to form a government, if there is a hung assembly than the prospects of Congress. Congress leaders are afraid of some poaching of their MLAs by BRS, if they still fall short of numbers.
Some Congress leaders are even talking of poaching some BRS MLAs to their side, but happens only after a new government is in place. As of now, Congress doesn’t want to take any chances and is preparing to shift the MLAs on Sunday night to a resort. But on the record they maintain that there would be no such necessity as Congress would easily cross the 65 seats mark on December 3.
