Sends out a loud message that there is no secret deal between BJP and TRS, pulls huge crowds to the delight of local leaders.
HYDERABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) star campaigner Prime Minister Narendra Modi has revved up his party’s prospects in the Telangana Assembly elections by hitting hard at TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and sent out a loud message that there was no secret deal between them. The local BJP leaders were thrilled to witness huge crowds at Modi’s meetings, unlike the tepid response they have drawn earlier.
The PM has toured Telangana this week and will come here again on Monday, two days ahead of the closure of campaigning in the state which goes to polls on 7 December. The PM’s meetings were a big success and the BJP leadership is hopeful of improving its performance in the nick of time for elections.
The PM addressed two meetings at Nizamabad and Mahabubnagar on 27 November and launched a no-holds-barred attack against KCR and his family rule in Telangana. “KCR is an apprentice of Madam Sonia and was a member of Madam’s remote controlled UPA 1 government as a minister and he knows well how to ignore people’s welfare and development,” Modi said.
Unsually, the PM spoke for an hour at Nizamabad, a Lok Sabha seat from where KCR’s daughter Kavitha is an MP. The PM lashed out at KCR and his daughter for lack of progress in and around Nizamabad and said that “like Madam Sonia and her family, this family too thinks that they can get away from working for the development of people”.
The PM specifically targeted KCR for rejecting the Ayushman Bharat, the flagship healthcare insurance scheme of his government and said that had Telangana opted for it, by now, thousands would have been benefitted out of the scheme. The PM said that KCR had learnt the ways of corruption and family rule from Madam Sonia and her family.
Chinta Sambamurthy, a senior BJP leader, told this newspaper that the PM’s meetings had definitely helped dispel an impression that there was an understanding between the BJP and KCR. “KCR has been sending out messages to this effect to confuse our cadre in Telangana, but the PM had removed this impression,” said the leader.
PM Modi would be addressing another major meeting at LB Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday. This is the venue from where he kick-started his campaign after being declared the prime ministerial candidate in 2013. The BJP top leadership is turning no stones unturned to ensure grand success of this meeting.
BJP, which has five MLAs in the dissolved Assembly, is hoping for a double digit, at least doubling its number in the 7 December elections. Presently, all the five MLAs were from the city of Hyderabad, but this time, the party wants to expand its footprint to outside districts. BJP’s senior leader and Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda is looking after the election coordination in Telangana for over a month.
Recently joined Swami Paripoornananda is touring all over by a helicopter and coordinating the BJP campaign. The party seniors are hopeful of improving the vote share in the Assembly elections and are of the view that this would certainly help them win more seats in the coming Lok Sabha elections next summer. “We will surprise you all,” BJP legislature party leader G. Kishan Reddy told this newspaper.
So far, many senior leaders, including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharti, campaigned here and UP CM Yogi Adityanath would tour here next week.