Modi, Shah to attend BJP’s national meet in Hyderabad

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold its two-day national executive meeting in Hyderabad on July 2 and 3. “All the stalwarts of the BJP will be attending the two-day national executive meeting, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda,” BJP national OBC morcha president and Rajya Sabha member K Laxman told reporters on Tuesday.

The meeting which will culminate in a huge public rally is being seen as a shot in the arm for the party’s Telangana unit which hopes to wrest power from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the next year’s assembly elections.

The public meeting will be held at Secunderabad Parade Grounds on July 4 evening, soon after the conclusion of the national executive meeting, to be held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre adjacent to Hotel Novotel in Madhapur.

“The decision to hold a public meeting involving the Prime Minister and other BJP bigwigs was taken at a meeting convened by party general secretary and in-charge of Telangana affairs Tarun Chugh and state BJP president Bandi Sanjay in the morning,” Laxman said.

The meeting will be attended by chief ministers of 18 BJP-ruled states, besides all the Union cabinet ministers, all state BJP presidents and 350 other national delegates will also be present. “The meeting will be held in such a way that it will reflect the Telangana traditions and culture,” the Rajya Sabha member said.

Initially it was proposed that Modi would take up a road show in Hyderabad, however, it was changed into a public meeting following the suggestion from national party leadership.

A senior BJP leader said on condition of anonymity that though the public meeting was not the part of the original agenda of the party’s national executive, it was decided at the last moment, in the wake of reports that TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao would be announcing a national party in June last week.

“It was decided that the BJP will give a fitting reply to the Telangana chief minister’s ambitious plans at its national executive meeting and the following public meeting. It will send a clear message to the people of Telangana that the BJP will wrest power from the TRS in the next elections and thwart all the plans of KCR,” the leader quoted above said. The TRS didn’t respond to the comment.

In the morning, Chugh held a meeting with state executive committee members of the BJP in Hyderabad. He said as many as 34 committees will be constituted to oversee the arrangements for the meeting.

Modi tour in Andhra

The Prime Minister will go on a short tour to Andhra Pradesh on July 4, a day after attending the party’s national executive meeting in Hyderabad.

He will fly down to Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh’s Narasapuram district to take part in the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of revolutionary freedom fighter Alluri Sita Ramaraju.

Union tourism and culture minister G Kishan Reddy said the programme is being held under Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav. “Ramaraju’s native village, Mogallu near Bhimavaram will be developed as a tourist spot. A museum will also be set up in Visakhapatnam in his honour at a cost of ₹35 crore,” he said.

There was a proposal to have Modi’s public meeting at Visakhapatnam on the same evening. “So far, it has not been confirmed. But going by his tight schedule and security issues, it is unlikely that Modi will address a public meeting in the port city,” senior BJP leader P Vishnuvardhan Reddy said.