When will the next elections to the Telangana Legislative Assembly be held? Incidentally, the first election was held in Telangana even before it was created. The country went to the General Elections between April 7 and May 12 in 2014 and the results were declared on May 16. In that election, people handed out a massive mandate to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at the national level. At the same time, polls were also held for the Telangana Assembly though the region was still a part of Andhra Pradesh state. In that Assembly polls, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), led by Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), won majority seats. But Telangana was officially created over a month later, June 2, 2014. That was the first and last time that Telangana’s Assembly polls were held alongside the General Elections as KCR advanced the Assembly polls by more than six months to November 2018. At that time, it was said that he took that decision to ward off any political threat to him from Prime Minister Narendra Modi under whose leadership the BJP started winning one state after another, including the prized Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest state. KCR was said to be under the impression that Modi’s popularity would dominate the election narrative if the Assembly polls were to be clubbed with the General Elections.

Irrespective of the reason, he opted for early polls and secured a massive mandate as TRS won 88 seats in the 119-seat Telangana Assembly in November 2018. But the state was pushed into a disadvantageous position as it started witnessing two major elections within a span of six months. Furthermore, political parties and contestants also faced financial challenges as elections turned out to be expensive propositions.

But this gamble did not pay off for KCR in 2023 as the Indian National Congress with Anumula Revanth Reddy as the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president trounced his party and won the Assembly polls. Driven by impractical national ambitions, KCR changed his party’s name to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) before the 2023 Assembly polls. But BRS not only lost the Assembly polls in that year, but was also reduced to zero in the Lok Sabha polls six months later. That way, BRS suffered more than any other political party because of the separate polls for Assembly and Lok Sabha in Telangana last time! KCR indeed paid a heavy price for his misadventure.

Coming to the present, Revanth Reddy has repeatedly been saying in recent weeks that the Congress will win two-thirds majority in the 2029 Assembly polls. In a media interaction immediately after the gram panchayat poll results, he claimed that Congress has won majority gram panchayats in 87 Assembly seats, which, he affirmed, would be repeated in 2029. Speaking at a meeting of new gram panchayat members at Kosgi in his Kodangal Assembly constituency recently, he repeated his ‘election forecast’, saying Congress would triumph in 87 Assembly seats out of 119 in 2029. He went on to say that the Grand Old Party (GOP) would win more than 100 seats in the event of the delimitation exercise taking the total to 153 seats. However, the last Assembly polls in Telangana were held in November 2023.

Going by that, the next Assembly polls should be held in November 2028 or around that time. Did Revanth receive a credible hint from somewhere that the Telangana Assembly polls would be clubbed with the 2029 General Elections? If that’s not true, there are two possibilities of this happening. One is the simultaneous elections. The Modi government has been trying for simultaneous elections to both Assemblies and Lok Sabha across the country as staggered elections were creating obstacles for the developmental initiatives. However, as per the existing proposals, the ‘One Nation One Election’ process will start after the 2029 General Elections with the first simultaneous polls likely to be held in 2034. But the central government can begin the process a bit early. As the Assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana are slated to be held just six months ahead of the next General Elections, the NDA government can take a decision to club them with the General Elections. That may not be a problem as BJP is in power in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan while going by his statements, Revanth Reddy seems to be okay with such a proposal. Alternatively, the Congress government in Telangana can take a Cabinet decision to postpone the polls and send it to the Centre. But does that benefit Congress in any way?

At present, Congress is in power on its own in Himachal Pradesh (HP), Karnataka and Telangana. Going by the current trends, the GOP is unlikely to win in HP and Karnataka in the next elections though it has some chances in Kerala where it’s the principal opposition now. Kerala’s Assembly polls are scheduled for April 2026. That leaves Telangana, which the Congress is portraying as its model state of governance for the country a la BJP’s portrayal of Gujarat. In that context, if Congress loses the 2023 Assembly polls in Telangana, the GOP will go into the 2029 General Elections with big disappointment.

Furthermore, to leave a mark of his own, Revanth Reddy reversed many of the decisions and initiatives taken up by the previous BRS government.

The Congress government cancelled the 20,000-acre Hyderabad Pharma City immediately after coming to power. Revanth Reddy is now trying to develop Future City in the same region. He also went for the redesigning of Telangana Talli statue and brought in a new state anthem. He also seems to be downsizing the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project (KLIP), the flagship irrigation project of the BRS government, by taking up the Tummidihetti barrage on Pranahita river. If he goes ahead with simultaneous elections, it will be yet another major reversal of KCR’s initiative.

Anyway, it’s good if the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls are held simultaneously in Telangana. That will reduce the financial burden on political parties and the contestants. The state’s economy will also get a breather as election code that restrains ruling party from announcing or launching new projects and schemes, will be for a lesser period. So will be the political uncertainty. And the peak election season, which these days lasts for nearly a year, will be shortened to six months. If Revanth Reddy goes for simultaneous polls whether the central government does it or not, it will do a world of good for the state.

The billion-dollar question is whether he will really go for it. Hopefully, he does that in the larger interest of the state.

It’s good if the Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha elections are held simultaneously in Telangana. The state will get a breather as election code that restrains ruling party from announcing or launching new projects and schemes will be for a lesser period. And the peak election season, which these days lasts for nearly a year, will be shortened to six months. Above all, simultaneous polls will reduce financial burden on political parties and contestants significantly