As the poll bugle sounded after the announcement of election dates Chief Minister and BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao, who was indisposed for almost three weeks, will be handing over B-Forms to party candidates on 15 October and releasing the party manifesto on the same day even as the BJP and the Congress are grappling with their respective lists of candidates.

The BRS has already released its list of candidates for 115 constituencies out of 119 a month in advance. The chief minister is expected to file his nominations on November 9 from the Gajwel and Kamareddy constituencies. He was indisposed initially with a viral infection followed by a bacterial one and hence could not make a public appearance for quite some time prompting BJP leaders to speculate over his long absence.

Today, when the chief minister’s office issued a schedule for his public meetings for the upcoming Assembly election, all the speculations about his absence were set at rest. He will begin campaigning with a public rally at Husnabad on 15 October. The single phase elections in the state will be held on 30 November and the counting of votes will take place on 3 December.

BRS working president K T Rama Rao, who had been holding rallies in the absence of the BRS supremo, predicted that the elections would be one-sided and “KCR is going to create a record as the first chief minister in South India to score a hat trick.”

“The polling dates are good – all 3s, election on 30 November, counting on 3 December and KCR will be chief minister for the third time,” he added.

The party is banking on its development work in the past ten years to sail through the elections this time around.

On the other hand, buoyed by the exit poll results that have predicted a majority for the Congress, PCC chief A Revanth Reddy declared that the countdown has begun for the Kalvakuntla family and Telangana would be liberated on 30 November. He said four crore people of the state are writing the death warrant of the dictator government.

“When Congress announced six guarantees, KCR got fever. It is time KCR took rest,” he added.

However, infighting continues to plague the grand old party in Telangana as a result of which the party could not release the list of candidates to date. The party is going to utilise the week after polls in Rajasthan to get its Central leaders, particularly the Gandhi siblings, for intense campaigning in the state.

State BJP chief G Kishan Reddy also predicted that the KCR-BRS Government would be shown the door. He claimed that the BJP would come to power while the Congress would be pushed down to third place.

However, Telangana is low on the priority list of the saffron party’s Central leadership which will undoubtedly be focussed on Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said he would soon announce the list of candidates. Calling the Congress pseudo-secular, he hoped KCR would be the chief minister of the state for the third term.