The Telangana Congress said on Sunday that it will move court if Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao dissolves the Assembly and calls early elections.

Rao is scheduled to address 25 lakh people at a public event near Hyderabad on Sunday, following a Cabinet meeting. Speculation is rife that the chief minister will push to have Telangana join Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan in conducting elections this year. The state Assembly’s term ends in April 2019.

Senior Telangana Congress leader M Shashidhar Reddy told the Hindustan Times that the party will approach the Election Commission to delay the Telangana polls until a revised voters’ list is published in January 2019.

“We will request the Election Commission not to club the Telangana polls with the elections to four states in December and delay them so that time is available for us to ensure voters’ lists are not doctored,” he said. “If that is not done, there will be scope for legal options and we are ready to adopt those. We will move the court.”

But Vinod Kumar Boianapalli, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi’s Lok Sabha MP from Karimnagar, claimed that the Congress’ threat only revealed its “nervousness”. “They are worried and not ready to face the people,” he said. “So, what will happen if they go to court? If not November-December, elections will be held in January or February. In any case, Assembly elections can’t be stretched beyond March.”

Boianapalli said that for the Telangana Assembly polls to be held along with those in four other states, the Assembly will have to be dissolved by September 10. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi has also supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal for simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and states.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, has ruled out the possibility of early elections in Telangana. Its spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao said there is not enough time for the Election Commission to incorporate Telangana into its roster. He said the BJP will demand President’s Rule in the state if the chief minister dissolves the Assembly.