HYDERABAD: Though the LB Stadium reverberated with the chants of ‘Modi, Modi’, the mood among the BJP ‘karyakartas’ who gathered at the packed arena was not that positive, with many believing that the saffron party will not make much headway in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seeking the public mandate to return to power, the humiliating loss in last December’s Assembly polls seems to have dented the party’s prospects to win in the Parliamentary elections, feel some who were present at Modi’s public meeting on Monday. The rank and file of the saffron party are apprehensive of the BJP’s State leadership pulling off a massive victory in the State. Though many are of the view that BJP could win in Secunderabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad and Malkajgiri, they were not sure of party’s success in other constituencies.
Pointing at the large cutouts of BJP’s prominent national and State leaders, just opposite the dais where Modi gave an engaging speech, D Gopal, an investment banker, felt that pictures of the contestants should have been there. “Why should Muralidhar Rao’s and Bandaru Dattatreya’s picture be there. Aren’t the candidates important than those leaders,” he asked.
Gopal said that the present State BJP leaders — Secunderabad Parliamentarian Bandaru Dattatreya, BJP State president K Laxman, senior leader G Kishan Reddy and MLC N Ramchander Rao — should be removed and new blood should be infused.
“They are all individual performers in their respective constituencies. But beyond that, they do not have any appeal. The charisma that a State leader should have is missing in them. The right thing they should have done was to resign after the loss (in Assembly polls),” he pointed out.
Echoing similar views, M Mallesh, a party worker from Vikarabad district, held that the leaders barely visit their constituencies, leave alone mandals.
“We are expecting the BJP to win in Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Secunderabad and Mahabubnagar due to the hard work that the leaders have put in. Otherwise, there is no way that BJP can win in other constituencies,” a Bjrangdal activist said before joining others in chanting, ‘Modi Modi’.