GHMC polls: BJP sees turning point in Telangana

New Delhi: BJP’s 12-fold jump in win in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Polls has brought cheer to the party. BJP has managed to increase its seats from 4 in 2016 to 48 seats this time. The party sees a chance to capture power in the state when polls will be held three years from now.

BJP’s victory in the Dubbaka assembly bypoll recently that indicated a change in the political kaleidoscope of Telangana. It was a TRS seat in the home district of chief minister KC Rao. The victory was significant for the BJP in several ways as this was the first bypoll TRS lost after the formation of Telangana in 2014.

It came as a morale booster to go all out in GHMC polls. The party appointed one of its most senior leaders and election architect Bhupender Yadav for the polls. From party president JP Nadda, home minister Amit Shah and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, the party deployed heavy artillery for a corporation election. It came as a surprise for many but also presented BJP as an alternative to the TRS dispensation.

“I thank senior party leaders and party workers, who worked with zeal in the elections. We not only increased our seats 12 fold, but managed to expand our vote bank. This was an election between dynasty and democracy and people have shown their resolve for democracy. BJP is now an established party in Telangana,” BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav told ET. Yadav said that people of Telangana have accepted BJP as a credible alternative and the next state government after the assembly elections would be of the BJP. A senior BJP leader once said that in any new state, it takes time for the BJP to secure 20% vote share. Once it reaches it, the next few milestones to become the lead party happens faster and easily.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP secured 19.45%. Though it could win only four of the seventeen seats, the vote share was quite encouraging. This was after the party's poor show in 2018 assembly polls six months earlier when it secured only 7% votes and won just a seat.

Buoyed by their performance in GHMC polls, the party leaders are hopeful of a better show in local bodies’ elections in Kerala. “We are expecting to win municipal corporations of Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram,” Kerala BJP president K Surendran told ET.