Why Telangana is keeping a close watch on Chhattisgarh election phase 1

Hyderabad, Oct 27: As Chhattisgarh is gearing up for its first phase of election scheduled on November 12, neighbouring Telangana, which is also poll-bound, is also keeping a close watch on the developments in the run-up to the first phase.

The first phase of polling in Chhattisgarh will be held in Naxal-hit areas like Bastar and Rajnandgaon and Telangana is discussing a lot of the upcoming polls in the extremist-hit zones, especially Bastar.

According to a report in Naidunia, talks are fully on over the elections in Bastar in Andhra Pradesh's East Godavari district besides Telangana's Khammam district.

It also reported that newspapers in Hyderabad are covering the elections in Bastar extensively. Journalists in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are in regular contacts with their counterparts in Chhattisgarh to know how things are shaping up ahead of the November 12 elections. Eighteen of 90 seats in Chhattisgarh will go to polls on that day while the rest will see elections on November 20. The results will be declared on December 11 along with those in Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Mizoram. Telangana, on the other hand, will go to polls on December 7.

It was learnt that besides the media in Hyderabad, the police, government officials, election authorities and also the common people were keeping a close watch on the November 12 elections. Various questions are being asked on how the extremists are dealing with the election process or how the authorities are tackling them.

The reason behind poll-bound Telangana's interest about the November 12 polls is that like Chhattisgarh, the new state also has the Naxalism problem. The two states' police are also working in tandem to ensure that each other's elections go peacefully.