HYDERABAD: When state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar starts the second leg of his Praja Sangrama Yatra on Wednesday, a month-long march, the focus of the message to the people along the 385-kilometre route through five districts will be paddy, power and the promise to provide jobs.
Buoyed by the government’s announcement that it would buy paddy from farmers, Sanjay told Deccan Chronicle that the BJP will exert relentless pressure on the TRS government and he will be taking the message about how it could not care less about the people.
“With paddy, it was the farmers (who were affected). With the increased electricity tariffs, RTC bus fare hikes, it is everyone who will be, and are being, hit,” he said. Then there is the issue of the promise to provide jobs to the unemployed, he added.
Sanjay hoped that these issues would resonate with people as he walked through Jogulamba-Gadwal, Narayanpet, Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool and Ranga Reddy districts. One of the thrust areas, now that the BJP believes that it had won the immediate battle over the paddy purchase issue with the Chief Minister, was the recently-hiked electricity tariffs.
“The people are ready to revolt. Being made aware of how people were angry, the Chief Minister enacted the drama over paddy purchase by the government,” he said while discussing the preparations for the padayatra with senior BJP leaders at the party headquarters earlier in the day. He cautioned BJP leaders and cadres “not to fall into the trap of lies being set by the Chief Minister,” Sanjay said.
The party during the padayatra would highlight how the BJP had fought with the government to force the latter to decide to buy paddy from farmers, and how it had sought to divert the attention of people from other issues such as power, and RTC tariff hikes.
While fuel prices were expected to be talked about, that would be more in terms of how the state government is refusing to reduce the Value Added Tax which in turn would reduce the burden on people using vehicles. As of now, the VAT, which goes to the state government, accounts for `32 per litre of petrol in Telangana, Sanjay said.
According to him, another important task during the padayatra would be to inform people about how the government must step up recruitment. “Our party will not allow the government to go slow on this and will build public opinion on the unemployment situation in the state,” Sanjay said.
