Hyderabad/New Delhi, November 14
Setting the stage for early polls to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, Governor Surjit Singh Barnala today dissolved the House and asked Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu to continue as the caretaker Chief Minister.Earlier, Mr Naidu handed over to the Governor a Cabinet resolution recommending dissolution of the 11th Legislative Assembly and holding elections at the earliest, formalising the resolve of the ruling TDP’s politburo to seek a fresh mandate from the people to “silence the Congress and the Naxalites hampering development in the state.”
Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh has ruled out holding Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh before February next year.
“Not before February. May be in March or thereafter,” he told reporters who asked him whether the commission was in a position to hold the elections by February.
“Our objective is to have a proper election and not to have a quick and bad election”, he said.
The resolution recommending dissolution of the Assembly was ratified yesterday by the ‘Sarva Pratinidhi Sabha’ (extended general body) of the party.
The Cabinet, during a 60-minute meeting at the state Secretariat here this morning endorsed the resolution recommending dissolution of the House, nine months before the end of its term.
Shortly afterwards, Mr Naidu, along with several senior Cabinet colleagues, drove to the Raj Bhavan to hand over the resolution to the Governor.
A communique issued by the Raj Bhavan here said the Governor had accepted the resolution of the Council of Ministers, thus enabling the Telugu Desam Party government to seek a fresh mandate.
Welcoming TDP’s decision to seek an early mandate, the BJP announced that it would have an alliance with the party in the coming Assembly elections.
— UNI, PTI
