BJP goes local to establish itself as a factor in Telangana

NEW DELHI: BJP’s aggression in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls is as audacious as it gets, considering that the party managed only five seats against TRS’s 99 and AIMIM’a 44 in 2016.
While BJP leaders have publicly claimed that the next mayor of the city will be a saffronite, sources in the party said they were aware that getting a majority in the civic body was not going to be easy.“We cannot realistically hope for a leap of the dimension like the BJP under PM Narendra Modi-Amit Shah pulled off in Tripura when taking the party from zero to majority in the state assembly,” a leader said.
BJP general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, who has been appointed in-charge for the GHMC polls, said, “Many are rattled and asking why BJP is so invested in local body elections. Truth be told, BJP is invested in all opportunities to serve the people of the country anywhere, everywhere. To those asking why, the answer is why not.”
However, according to sources, the high-octane drive in Hyderabad could actually be aimed at establishing the party as a factor in Telangana as a whole. The party’s tacticians feel that the the ruling TRS could be on the wane as the sense of gratitude to its leader and chief minister Chandrasekhar Rao has evaporated because of the promotion of ‘dynasty’, alleged corruption as well as administrative inefficiency and excesses.

“We want to take Telangana and Hyderabad from dynasty to democracy, from corruption to transparency and from politics of appeasement to development,” home minister Amit Shah said in Hyderabad on Sunday, making it clear that the party will not spare the CM and his family, who are facing charges of corruption and family fostering.
BJP’s surprise success in the recent Dubakka bypoll is being seen as evidence that the state may be emerging out of “thanksgiving mode” when people massively favoured the founder of Telangana. Dubakka shares its borders with Gajwel, represented by KCR; Sircilla, the constituency of his son and IT minister K T Rama Rao; and Siddipet, the stronghold of the CM’s nephew Harish Rao.
Besides TRS’s perceived problems, BJP, which surprised many by winning four Lok Sabha seats in 2019, is also encouraged by the decline of Congress and TDP. Congress did not win a single seat in GHMC polls in 2016.

Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, on campaign trail for GHMC polls on Saturday, had said, “Some people were asking me if Hyderabad can be renamed as Bhagyanagar. I said ‘why not?’ I told them that we renamed Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj after BJP came in power in Uttar Pradesh. Then why can’t Hyderabad be renamed as Bhagyanagar?”