2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly election

The 2018 Telangana Legislative Assembly election was held on 7 December 2018 which marked the second electoral event since the state's formation in 2014. Key contenders included the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Indian National Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and Telugu Desam Party.
A noteworthy development in the electoral landscape was the formation of the Praja Kutami, comprising opposition parties such as INC, TDP, CPI and TJS. Despite their collective efforts, they were restricted to 21 seats. The election ultimately reaffirmed the political dominance of TRS, led by K. Chandrashekar Rao, as they secured victory with 88 seats and continued to govern the state of Telangana.

Background

The chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao called for an early election, when he resigned on 6 September 2018, nine months before the completion of his term.
Since no other party had a majority, the house was dissolved by the governor and Assembly elections were announced.
This election led to the alliance of TDP and INC, once arch rivals, coming together as part of Praja Kutami for the first time.

Electoral process changes

Election Commission of India announced that Voter-verified paper audit trail machines will be used in all 32,574 polling stations in the assembly elections in Telangana. According to the final electoral rolls published on 12 October 2018, Telangana has 2,80,64,680 voters, which is less than 2,81,65,885 voters in 2014 Telangana assembly elections. There were around 2,600+ transgenders in the voters list.

S.No	Group of voters	Voters population
1	Male	1.38 crore
2	Female	1.35 crore
3	Transgender	5,560
-	Total voters	2,80,64,680

Schedule

The date of the election was 7 December 2018 and the result were to be out on 11 December 2018.

Poll event	Date
Start of nomination	12 November 2018
Last date for filing nomination	19 November 2018
Scrutiny of nomination	20 November 2018
Last date for withdrawal of nomination	22 November 2018
Date of poll	7 December 2018
Date of counting of votes	11 December 2018
Date of the election being completed	13 December 2018