Dynasty hunter BJP eyes Telangana
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, July 1: Searching for a foothold in the hearts of the Deccan land, the full might of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have landed in Hyderabad as part of the party’s two-day National Executive meeting in the city.
Fancying better electoral strike rates against political dynasties, the BJP is hopeful that the party can have a quick ride to power in Telangana, currently ruled by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will stay put in the city for two days, and take part in the deliberations of the national plenary meeting of the part, said the BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh.
Telangana has 119 Assembly seats, and for past two terms since the state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh after violent protests and dramatic ways of the passage of the Bill to create the state the TRS is ruling the state.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao in line with other regional parties which also have sought to convert their political outfits into family-owned enterprises has established his son KT Rama Rao aka KTR, daughter K Kavitha, nephew T Harish Rao in his party.
While KTR is widely known to be the de-facto Chief Minister of Telangana, T Harish Rao is seen as an organizational man of the TRS. Both hold key portfolios in the state government.
The BJP currently has two MLAs in the state Assembly, but the party is convinced that the party can ride a pole-vault to power in the next year’s state Assembly elections,
The BJP in the run up to the national executive meeting in Hyderabad brought in the full might of the party, tasking senior leaders to camp in each Assembly seat for two days.
The BJP has previously brought in national leaders for the state wide ‘yatra’ of the party’s Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay.
While KCR has enjoyed near monopoly in the state politics, decimating the Congress and slip of the Telugu Desam Party to the status of irrelevance, the BJP is counting on the cadre of the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) to act as force-multiplier in the state politics.
The BJP is also hoping to benefit from the politics of polarization in counter to the AIMIM’s politics in Hyderabad.
While the BJP has no face in the state who can claim to have pan-state following, the saffron outfit counts on Brand Modi to compensate for the lack of formidable leadership.
The BJP’s bid to go whole hog against the dynasties in the state is seemingly based on its strategies to work with the disgruntled elements in the ruling party who may be nursing grievances against the promotion of sons by the ageing Chief Ministers, as is the case in Telangana.
The BJP has sizable influence in Secunderabad, Nizamabad, Nagarkurnool, Gadwal and other districts of northern parts of the state, while the party is gaining grounds in areas adjoining Maharashtra.