Hyderabad: The BJP on Thursday declared that it would do its best win power in Telangana in the next Assembly elections. Party president J.P. Nadda has said there was a clear desire for change in government in the state.
The BJP has in store for the Telangana Rashtra Samiti a bigger 'dhamaka' than what the TRS experienced in Dubbaka and in Huzurabad.
Nadda said, "I was speaking to Bandi and Etala Rajendar earlier. Dubbaka dhamaka kya hua, Huzurabad mein huzur gir gaye. Yeh saari ghatnane KCR sahib ko vichilit kardiya (the dhamaka in Dubbaka, and the fall of the leader in Huzurabad, have disturbed KCR).
“The people in Telangana want a BJP government here. They want to see a double engine government, a Modi-led BJP government at the Centre and a BJP government in the state,” Nadda said.
The BJP president was addressing a public meeting in Mahbubnagar as part of the state BJP president Bandi Sanjay’s padayatra.
“This government of Chandrashekar Rao, this is one of the most corrupt governments. You should remember this. Kaleshwaram project has become a milch cow for Chandrashekar Rao. Its cost went up from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 1,20,000 crore. But, despite all these, not an inch of land has been irrigated by this project in the state,” Nadda said.
“This is living proof of KCR’s corruption,” he said, and asked the gathering to say if they agreed with his view on corruption in Mission Bhagiratha, Mission Kakatiya, and even the Haritha Haram programmes.
“Does the KCR government not support the land mafia,” he asked, adding the people of Telangana know how to get their rights, and the day is set to come when the lotus will bloom in the state and the BJP comes to power.”
Union minister Kishan Reddy called on the people to give the BJP a chance to govern the state and promised that the chief minister’s Pragati Bhavan, to which AIMIM leaders have full access while no one else is allowed inside, will be turned into Telangana Pragati Bhavan after the BJP comes to power in the state.
“A strange situation exists in Telangana. The last elections saw how worried the TRS was that it will lose power if the polls were to be held along with those for the Lok Sabha. So it called for early elections in the state but still lost eight seats to BJP and the Congress. The Dubbaka and the Huzurabad Assembly bypolls have taught the TRS a lesson,” he said.
“Now, KCR is worried about the elections next year. He is sitting in his farm house and worrying as to what if the TRS loses and his son does not become the chief minister,” he said.
He added: “It is because of this worry that the chief minister is trying to divert the attention of the people from his failures by criticising the BJP government at the Centre. Telangana Talli has been imprisoned by the Kalvakuntla and Owaisi families. KCR has been in power for eight years, dictating terms to the media and the police. He, along with Asaduddin Owaisi, is trying to poison the minds of the people. The AIMIM said ‘no’ to Telangana and opposed its formation. Now the TRS is with it. The people of Telangana are enlightened. They will see through this and bring the BJP to power in the next elections,” Kishan Reddy said.
Bandi Sanjay, on the second leg of his Praja Sangrama Yatra, and having received full support for his endeavour from Nadda and Kishan Reddy, called Chandrashekar Rao a “Telangana drohi (betrayer).” He wondered why KCR was unwilling to accept his challenge about seeing for himself how people were migrating from Palamuru region in search of livelihoods.
Sanjay also took aim at the government decision to conduct Group I job exams in Urdu, and said the government was trying to ensure that a select few who answer in that language passed. “Their test papers will be corrected by a select few, they will get those jobs at the cost of others who truly deserve those jobs.”
“After the BJP comes to power,” Sanjay said, “we will remove everyone who gets a job after taking the tests in Urdu and ensure those jobs go to those who should deserved them.”
He said the BJP has been warning the state government against any delay paddy procurement and that rains will spoil the crop, but the state has not done anything. He criticised the TRS government for not completing any irrigation project that would benefit the Palamuru region.
Among the other BJP leaders who addressed the meeting were Etala Rajender, AP Jithender Reddy, DK Aruna, Raghunandan Rao, and Dharmapuri Aravind.
Earlier in the day, addressing a meeting of party leaders at Mahbubnagar, Nadda told them not to worry over the importance given in the party to some leaders who came from other parties. “There is no need for anyone to worry about losing their standing or status in the party when others join the BJP,” he said.
The BJP is positioned well to come to power in Telangana and the present opportunity should not be squandered. Everyone in the party will be taken care of appropriately, Nadda said.
Nadda’s comments come in the wake of expectations that the BJP in Telangana will see an influx of all sorts of politicians from other parties; and that this could lead to some heartburn within the party among those expecting tickets to contest the next assembly elections.
