Venkaiah Naidu rules out mid-term polls

“Mid-term poll talk either in the state or in the Centre according to me is baseless. It has no foundation. From where this rumour has come, I don’t know. Our party president (Amit Shah) and even the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) have been asking our cadre and our government to work hard and prepare for 2019 elections. And that’s our goal,” the Minister for Information and Broadcasting, told reporters here. 

“We have been given a mandate of five years and we will complete (the tenure) and go to polls in 2019. The midterm poll talk has no basis according to me,” he said. 

Reacting to a query on categorisation of Scheduled Castes, the Union Minister said, “The party is in favour of this. There is a need for discussion on the issue between states and the Centre before bringing an Act. The Union government is yet to take a decision on whether to bring an Act for the entire country or if the decision is to be left to the states.”