Why KCR decided not to have assembly and Lok Sabha elections together

Hyderabad, Mar 16: When K Chandrashekhar Rao decided to dissolve the Telangana assembly early, one felt that he was taking a big gamble. As per the schedule, elections to both the assembly and Lok Sabha segments were meant to be held simultaneously.

Instead KCR made the decision to dissolve the assembly in September 2018 itself. The question was why did KCR want to dissolve the assembly when it still had a term of nearly 7 months.

In 2014, despite spearheading the movement for a separate state, KCR's TRS managed to win only 63 out of the 119 seats. The Congress came second with 21 seats, while the TDP and YSR Congress party bagged 15 and 3 respectively. The Asaduddin Owaisi led AIMM and the BJP won seven and five seats respectively.

KCR took the gamble keeping two things in mind. First he wanted to win the assembly polls by a bigger margin when compared to 2014. For this he wanted to keep his focus on one election at a time. This gamble paid off in the state elections for KCR and his TRS.

With the assembly elections done, KCR would now solely focus on the Lok Sabha segment and try and bag as many as seats as possible. The state elects 17 MPs.

KCR has over the months made efforts to stitch up a federal front. However his plans have not succeeded and at the moment, his party is going alone. However KCR feels that if he is able to win at least 15 to 16 seats, then he would be a key player in case the 2019 elections throws up a hung mandate.