BJP has started efforts to increase its influence in the state before the 2023 elections.
BJP has started efforts to increase its influence in the state before the 2023 elections.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited BJP corporators of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to New Delhi for an informal meeting this month, he sent two messages. The first was to show that the BJP is a party that values grassroots leaders and that these leaders have access to the top leadership, in stark contrast to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), where Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s official residence- co-office is out of bounds even for his own ministers. The second was that the top leadership is serious about the 2023 assembly elections in Telangana where it expects to pose a serious challenge to the TRS. After Karnataka and Puducherry, the BJP sees Telangana as the next best bet for its expansion in the south.
The party created history two years ago when it won 48 seats (from just four in 2016) in the 150-member GHMC civic body. In the 2018 assembly election, Raja Singh was the only BJP candidate to win a seat from Goshamahal, but the party did well in the 2019 general elections. In Nizamabad, BJP’s D Arvind defeated Rao’s daughter Kavita. In Secunderabad, which is a BJP bastion, Union Minister for Tourism, Culture and Northeast Development G. Kishan Reddy won. Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who was then the official spokesperson of the party and is now the state president of the BJP, won from Karimnagar. The party also unexpectedly won Adilabad. Later, it won two assembly by-elections – Dubbaka and Huzurabad – fielding M. Raghunandan Rao and Eatala Rajender, who were earlier with the TRS.
Since these victories, Mr. Kumar has been hammering against the Rao regime led by the top leadership. Mr. Kumar launched a two-phase Praja Sangram Yatra (walkathon), which the party calls to fight “corruption and misgovernance of the TRS government”. In two phases of the yatra, BJP leaders have covered different districts. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, National BJP President JP Nadda and other senior leaders took part in the yatra, using the opportunity to launch a non-stop attack against the TRS government. Mr. Kumar is playing the communal card by attacking the TRS-Majlis party friendship. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also accused the regime for its “dynastic and corrupt” regime while addressing party people at the Begumpet airport during a recent visit. He claimed that the people of Telangana are ready for a political change and the situation is ideal for the BJP to come to power in the next elections. Apart from this, the party has also nominated state BJP president and former MLA from Uttar Pradesh K. Laxman has also been sent to Rajya Sabha, which shows that she is giving importance to the leaders of Telangana.
The National Executive meeting to be held in Hyderabad in the first week of July will give another opportunity to the BJP to show its strength in the state. Top leaders including Mr Modi, Mr Shah, Chief Ministers and senior leaders of all BJP-ruled states are expected to attend the meeting. This will be the first physical meeting of the BJP’s key decision-making body outside the national capital after a gap of five years.
It is clear that the BJP, which till now had an impact in Telangana, expects a better performance in the next elections and is taking various initiatives to achieve this. But this is no easy task given that the Congress has a huge support base and the TRS is no slouch, even though it has lost some popularity in the recent past. The challenge for the BJP is to identify winning candidates to build a grassroots cadre across the state and face a tough challenge from TRS and Congress.
gitanath.v@thehindu.co.in