A crucial meeting of the Telangana cabinet is underway on Sunday amid talks that chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was planning to dissolve the state assembly to go for early polls.
Amid strong indications of polls being advanced, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is holding a massive show of strength.
The rally is preceded by a meeting of the state cabinet, which is likely to decide for dissolution of assembly, seven months ahead of its term.
TRS leaders said Rao will take "key decisions" at the cabinet meeting and announce them at the public meeting.
The cabinet may pass a resolution to dissolve the assembly and recommend this to Governor ESL Narasimhan. If the election commission agrees, the polls may be held in December along with the elections in three other states --Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
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The state Congress has claimed Rao is going for early elections as a "last ditch" attempt to
protect his party from the "rising congress wave."
State Congress president N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the ruling TRS has failed to fulfil a single major election promise.
"Tremendous public response to the recent visit of Congress president Rahul Gandhi to Hyderabad had sent shockwaves among TRS leaders.
With the Congress party gaining strength organisationally across the state, Rao has already sensed a humiliating defeat in next polls," the state Congress president said.
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"As a last attempt to protect his party from the rising Congress wave, the chief minister is going for early polls," he said.
For the last few weeks, Rao had been dropping hints of assembly elections being advanced. He has already declared that the party will announce the candidates in September.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, is keen to advance the assembly polls to avoid simultaneous elections to the Assembly and the Parliament.
His two meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August further added to the speculation. Over the last few days, he announced sops for various sections of people and also transferred IAS and IPS officers.
On Saturday, the chief minister announced 35% pay hike for the employees of electricity department.
KCR's son and cabinet minister KT Rama Rao said the chief minister would take a final decision on early polls. Rama Rao, who is number two in the party and the government, is confident of TRS retaining power whenever the elections are held.
Titled "Pragati Nivedana" (Progress report), the meeting to be held at Kongara Kalan at Ibrahimpatnam on the city outskirts is expected to attract 25 lakh people. Rama Rao claims that this will be the biggest political rally in the country.
According to him, TRS has 47 lakh members and if half of them turn up, the meet would be a huge success. TRS leaders are mobilising people for the meet from across the state.
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TRS, which formed the first government in Telangana after the state came into being on June 2, 2014 with the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, will highlight its achievements during the last four years while KCR is expected to sound the poll bugle.
TRS workers from various parts of state started pouring in for the meeting.
The massive mobilisation of people is expected to hit the traffic on Outer Ring Road (ORR) as thousands of vehicles will be heading towards the venue from different entry points along ORR. Rama Rao has suggested to people not attending the meeting to stay indoors.
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(Agencies)
