BJP, gung ho on prospects, to focus on beefing up party in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Tarun Chugh, BJP national general secretary said that the BJP could win at least 70 seats out out the 119 in the state, even before it formally began selecting candidates.

“If we announce our candidates, then we will win up to 90 seats. Elections are coming closer and each one of you must devote more time to work for the success of the party,” Chugh told the state BJP’s core committee and state executive committee meetings here on Friday.

Chugh said there was a lot of anger among people against Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and the BJP should use this mood.

The committees decided to give a break to the padayatra of its state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. He has completed 1,403 km on his Praja Sangrama Yatra in five phases and covered 56 Assembly constituencies.

Hedging its bets on possible early elections, the party also decided that Sanjay would, between January 15 and January 30, visit at least three Assembly constituencies each day. This was decided as it would not be possible for him to continue with his padayatra in case Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao called for snap polls.

At the meetings, the leaders said Sanjay’s padayatra’s was successful in helping the party reach the masses. Complimenting Sanjay, they recalled how his effort had been praised by top BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda.

Party’s state general secretary G. Premender Reddy, who along with former MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar briefed reporters on the meetings, said the BJP would organise dharnas at district collectorates on December 27 demanding that the state government immediately waive farm loans up to `1 lakh that it promised to do in 2018.

Prabhakar said, “Since the government has not kept this promise, some 32 lakh farmers have been pushed into debt. On top of it, using the Dharani portal on land registrations as an excuse, the TRS has been creating land rights conflicts where there were none, leaving tens of thousands of farmers and others in the lurch. Using these created conflicts as a ruse, TRS leaders are attempting to grab such so-called lands in conflict.”

The party also rejigged its constituency wise structure to oversee activities and decided to appoint a ‘palak’ – a coordinator – who would oversee the party work in each constituency. The palak would work with a full-time ‘vistarak’, a convener, and a ‘prabhari’.

It is learnt that palaks could be those seeking to contest in next Assembly elections but in such cases they would be deputed to constituencies other than the ones they prefer to contest from.

A meeting of these leaders from the 119 Assembly constituencies will be held towards the end of this month and BJP’s general secretary in-charge of organisational matters, B.L. Santosh, will address the gathering, it was decided.

The party is also learnt to have decided to speed up construction of its offices in all district headquarters so they are ready for use before the year-end

BJP Action Plan

• Strengthen social media teams and presence from the village level upward
• Dharnas demanding farm loan waiver, against Dharani portal at collectorates on Dec. 27
• Booth committees meeting on Jan. 7, to be addressed by BJP prez J.P. Nadda
• District executive meetings from Dec. 19 to Dec. 2

Switch to secure phones

Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar alleged that the TRS government was tapping the phones of all BJP leaders. "Every leader must be on the alert on this. Each of you should have an iPhone which is more secure. Use only Facetime for calls and messages," he said.