KCR eyes 3rd term; Cong emerges as a key contender

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will go into what is set to be Telangana's most keenly contested election in its decade-long history, with the Election Commission announcing that the state will vote on November 30 and results will be announced December 3.

- Srinivasa Rao Apparasu

Telangana chief on minister K Chandrashekar Rao will hope to overcome a two-term anti-incumbency, and win for the third consecutive time. The challenge for him is a resurgent Congress and a BJP that can influence the outcome of the polls.

In the 2014 assembly elections, the BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samiti, or TRS) won 63 of the 119 assembly seats, banking on its decades-long struggle for a separate state.

In his first term, Rao launched a clutch of welfare schemes such as the Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, Kalyan Lakshmi and double bedroom houses scheme, as well as development programmes such as Mission Kakatiya (restoration of defunct irrigation tanks) and Mission Bhagiratha (bringing piped drinking water to every doorstep) and major irrigation projects.