The BJP is sounding the poll bugle in Telangana come April 14 with the second leg of its Praja Sangrama Yatra to star a host of central leaders, from party chief J P Nadda to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The party pranna pramukhs are fanned out on the ground to enrol new members while a dedicated team of strategists and data analysts is camped in Hyderabad to coordinate the BJP campaign.
With the Congress floundering, the BJP sees an opportunity in the state's two-party political arena. It sounded its intent with the Huzurabad bypoll win of November 2021, where the BJP candidate stunned the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi's nominee. The TRS's nervousness is apparent in the scaling up of its campaign against the BJP, including at the Centre, where it has shed its neutrality to take on the Narendra Modi government.
There is also talk that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who has been lately talking of larger Opposition unity with him as the fulcrum, may bring the elections forward from end-2023, to deny the BJP enough time to mount a campaign.
Against this background comes the latest BJP push.
The strategy is to target the TRS on the three promises of “Neellu (water)”, “Nidhanalu (funds)” and “Niyamakalu (jobs)” on which the party had fought for separate statehood for Telangana. Panna pramukhs have been given the task of meeting at least 60 voters each to talk about the promise of the BJP’s “double engine growth” (at the state and Centre) and good governance, as well as the TRS government's failures.
The BJP hopes to also cash in on farmer discontent, arising out of a flawed TRS policy of encouraging paddy plantation. Following a bumper harvest, the Rao government has been under pressure to increase procurement, and it has been trying to pass the buck to the Centre.
The BJP's Praja Sangrama Yatra will be led by its BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar. He says he is confident of “creating history” – Kumar draws a parallel to Y S Rajashekar Reddy’s padyatra two decades ago when he swept to power in 2004. “There is so much discontent among the people of Telangana… over failed promises, lack of jobs. Our aim is not just to take on the TRS, we want to topple it and form the government," he says.
Apart from Kumar, Nadda and Adityanath, Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani will participate in the 45-day padayatra, which will comprise public meetings, roadshows and, as per sources, announcement of at least half a dozen welfare measures, the details of which are being finalised.
The campaign team, of Association of Brilliant Minds, that is now based in Hyderabad earlier worked in the Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal Assembly elections.
The team will pit its wits against strategist Prashant Kishor, who is said to be working for the TRS. BJP sources said the national leadership is hoping to create enough of a splash to ensure that Rao gets pinned down in Telangana, scuppering his plans of heading an alternative anti-BJP alliance at the national level.
Party leaders said the BJP is targeting at least 70 of the 119 Assembly seats, particularly the 31 reserved seats – 19 SC and 12 ST – and 24 urban constituencies, a strategy that has paid off in other states. “Since Independence, in united Andhra Pradesh, whichever party won the SC and ST seats, won the election. So we have put in motion 'Mission 19' and 'Mission 12' to capture these seats,’’ says former MP A P Jithender Reddy, the chairman of Mission 19.
While the TRS swept most of the SC and ST seats in the 2014 and 2018 elections in the state, Reddy earlier won for the BJP the Huzurabad Assembly by-poll as well as the by-election for Dubbaka as its in-charge of the party campaign, as well as coordinated BJP efforts in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls in which the party performed well. He was specifically in-charge of the Musheerabad corporation, where his party won five of the six wards.
MP Garikapati Mohan Rao is in-charge of the ST constituencies for the BJP.
The performance in the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation gives the BJP hope for the 24 urban constituencies in and around the city and in adjoining Ranga Reddy district, which fall under the IT corridor.
BJP chief spokesperson K Krishna Sagar Rao said the party would take into account all factors, including caste, in the ticket distribution.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar said the party is telling voters it is the best alternative to the TRS. “The Congress is in disarray, it has reached a new low with infighting. We are showcasing the success of BJP governments in other states, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development model,” says Kumar, adding: “The national leadership’s focus is fully on Telangana now.”
(With inputs from agencies)