Telangana polls: With BJP-Cong eyeing for second spot, TRS is ahead

Hyderabad, Oct 15: K Chandrashekhar Rao decided to call the election early in India's newest state of Telangana. While some see it as a masterstroke, others argue that it is a wrong gamble.

The assembly elections to the five states including Telangana would be closely watched at it is the big semi final ahead of the bigger final in 2019.

According to leading psephologist Dr. Sandeep Shastri, the TRS continues to hold the edge in the state. It is the newest India and let us remember that it is the first formal election in Telangana, he says.

It appears to me that the TRS has a distinct advantage and the hallow over its leadership which for the state is still there. Secondly, TRS has not done anything dramatically bad in the five years to inviter the wrath of the voter, Dr. Shastri says. What I get to see is that the TRS still enjoys a reasonably high popularity wave.

Dr. Shastri however points that the the Congress and the BJP are fighting for the second position in Telangana. This is important considering both are eyeing for the second and not the first position.

Both the parties are looking at it from the view point of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in terms of positioning themselves as the main opposition.

I feel that both are fighting so that they can emerge as the number 2 party in the state. Either do not believe that they can come to power. This is in fact working well in the advantage of the TRS, which for me as of now looks like the comfortable winner, Dr Shastri also adds.

It may be recalled that KCR had decided to dissolve the assembly early. Several political analysts had pointed out that he wanted to focus on the assembly and Lok Sabha elections individually. KCR is eyeing to play a big role in 2019 and hence felt that mixing the two elections would not be exact right thing to do.

Telangana votes on December 7 and counting of votes will take place on December 11. There are 119 seats in total and the magic number is 60.