Third in the race is just a number and what matters is who finishes first. In UP, Bharatiya Janata Party which was believed to be at the third place behind SP and BSP eventually created a history when the time came. The BJP is confident of replicating the same success story in the twin Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, which together send 42 Members of Parliament to the Lok Sabha,
The BJP already has a moderately strong presence in Andhra Pradesh, where the party is in alliance with the ruling Telugu Desam Party. It is Telangana that is a special target for the BJP central leadership, which is looking to fill the vacuum left behind by the severely depleted TDP and virtually annihilated Congress and Communists. In order to challenge the ruling TRS, the BJP is going to implement the Uttar Pradesh model in the southern state.
The BJP strategy in Telangana would be to “expose Muslim appeasement” by the ruling TRS. The BJP has opposed the Telangana government’s recent proposal to provide 12 percent reservation in colleges and jobs to Muslims.
150 bikes from Uttar Pradesh have been brought to the BJP state headquarters in Hyderabad, these bikes will be used for extensive campaigning aimed at promoting the policies and programmes of the Narendra Modi-led central government.
Unlike his April 2016 visit to West Bengal where Amit Shah spent a day with party’s booth level workers in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s assembly constituency, Shah will not be visiting the constituency of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. Instead, Amit Shah will visit areas that have traditionally been strongholds of the Communists, Congress and AIMIM. Shah knows unlike Bengal which has 25% population of Muslims (including a huge chunk of illegal immigrants), Telangana has a Muslim population of only 10%, most of whom will vote for AIMIM just as they have been voting from the advent of elections, it doesn’t really matter what kind of appeasement policies KCR implements. TRS wouldn’t be getting the majority of the Muslim votes and will indirectly help the BJP in splitting votes with AIMIM.
Shah will visit Nalgonda and Hyderabad neither of which are TRS strongholds. Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat has mostly exchanged hands between the Communists and Congress. The CPI has won the seat seven times and the Congress six since the first Lok Sabha polls the district is considered a communist bastion. In Bengal, last year Shah had spent a day in Naxalbari the birthplace of the Naxalite movement. The political subtleness of choosing both these places are self-explanatory. Annihilate the communists. Cut the head of the snake. In both these seats BJP candidates had bagged over 30 per cent votes and were runners up in 2014. That was the reason why the BJP is focussing on the smaller opponents instead of going directly against TRS to increase the vote share and exploit the splitting of votes between Congress, Communists, TRS and AIMIM. The first stage the BJP will target Congress, Communist vote bank and poach its second-string leaders. In the next stage, the BJP’s target is finishing the TRS.
Last year, TRS had rejected union minister M Venkaiah Naidu’s suggestion to officially celebrate the September 17 as Hyderabad Liberation Day and slammed the BJP for playing communal politics. AIMIM also had hoisted a black flag on its headquarters on Hyderabad Liberation Day.
We can be pretty sure of seeing grand celebrations on September 17, 2017 in Hyderabad, led from front by BJP. Hoping to see even bigger celebration for liberation of Hyderabad in 2019, liberation from communists and pseudo secular parties. Telangana deserves BJP, BJP deserves Telangana.