Friday, 17 May, 2024
By: Yash Gupte
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday met actor Junior NTR at a hotel in Hyderabad on Sunday night. Amid speculation over the meeting, BJP sources claimed it is part of the 'outreach program' of the saffron party with personalities from different fields.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday met actor Junior NTR at a hotel in Hyderabad on Sunday night. Amid speculation over the meeting, BJP sources claimed it is part of the 'outreach program' of the saffron party with personalities from different fields. Jr NTR, the late NT Rama Rao's grandson, had withdrawn from politics after vigorously campaigning for the TDP in the 2009 elections. However, the home minister is said to have told Jr NTR that the BJP would utilize his services when the time comes. Surprisingly, the BJP state officials were completely ignorant of the meeting until the very last minute as they later in a statement revealed that the details of the meeting were not revealed to them.
The meeting took place soon days after Rajamouli’s father and ‘RRR’ story writer Vijayendra Prasad was nominated to the Rajyasabha. Apart from his meeting with the Jr NTR, Amit Shah had travelled to Hyderabad on Sunday to address a public meeting in Munugode. Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who had resigned from the Congress party, was formally inducted into the Bhartiya Janata Party at a public meeting in Munugode. Amit Shah remarked that if Rajgopal Reddy wins the Munugode by polls, then KCR's corrupt government will fall in the upcoming elections, and that Rajgopal joining the saffron party is the beginning of KCR's demise.
BJP’s Telangana plan
In order to target the upcoming assembly elections in Telangana scheduled to take less than a year, BJP held its national executivemeeting in Hyderabad after 18 years. The decision to keep the meeting in Telangana can be gauged by the fact that itwas the first physical meeting of the national executive outside the national capital in five years. Sources in the party attribute the decision to hold the meet as a step to fuel its ‘Mission South’ agenda and as an aid in its battle for Telangana.
The BJP, which was trounced in the December 2018 Assembly elections by the TRS, winning just one seat in the 119-member Telangana Assembly, has since seen its presence grow in the State.Except Karnataka, BJP has not been able to single handedly win any state in the south. This is the reason BJP is trying its best to increase its base in Telangana where it hopes of better performance in the upcoming assembly elections.
The chart below shows the vote share of BJP in the state. While the saffron party managed to get 10 percent vote share in 2014 Loksabhaelections, it increased to 20 percent in 2019.
Source: Election Commission of India
This shows that the BJP had managed to improve its electoral performance in the 2019 Loksabha elections. The major reason behind this can be attributed to the charismatic leaders like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who had heavily campaigned during the 2019 elections. But though the party had performed well in the parliamentary elections of 2019, its vote share has not even changed a bit in 2018 Telangana assembly elections as compared to the 2014 assembly elections when state elections were held for the first time. The vote share of BJP in both the elections was 7.1%. This shows that the road ahead is not very smooth for the BJP in Telangana assembly elections.
After taking into consideration the BJPs electoral performance in the 2014 and 2019 Loksabha elections and 2014 and 2018 Telangana assembly elections, let us come to the number of seats won by BJP in 2015 and 2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections.
Source: Telangana State Election Commission
BJP managed to score just 4 seats in the 2015 GHMC elections as the popularity of KCR was at an all time high due to the creation of Telangana state in 2014. But, the BJP performed excellently five years later winning 48 seats and emerging as the second largest party. It managed to make a dent in TRS votes. The KCR-led party that had won 99 seats in 2015 saw a decrease of 43 seats in 2020 winning only 56 seats.
The BJP had performed well in the 2020 GHMC elections and the 2019 Loksabha elections and now it has all its eyes set for the upcoming Telangana assembly elections in December 2023.
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