Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam
India’s youngest state, Telangana, goes to polls on Friday, 7 December, to constitute its second Legislative Assembly. The single-phase polling will see voting in all 119 constituencies.
The main contenders for this election remain to be the K Chandrashekhar Rao-led TRS - in power for the last four years and the Congress-led 'Mahakutami' or the 'Grand Alliance', which includes the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) among many others.
The BJP, although not a main contender, is expected to swing some percentage of vote share. A key regional player in Telangana Assembly polls would be All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). The party, led by Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, may not be a favourite to form the government but is relevant to be ignored, at the same time.
As a part of united Andhra Pradesh, Telangana would vote for state and national polls simultaneously from 1999 to 2014. However, KCR dissolved the Telangana Assembly on 6 September, his supposed ‘lucky’ date. Hours after dissolving the Assembly, he released a list of 105 candidates who will fight the elections.
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