In the present Lok Sabha, the party has only one seat, Secunderabad.
Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to go aggressive in Telangana and plans to win three to four Lok Sabha seats from here in the 11 April elections. In the present Lok Sabha, the party has only one seat, Secunderabad, represented by former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. This time, he was replaced with former MLA G. Kishan Reddy to contest from the seat.
BJP national president Amit Shah in fact expected to expand the party vote base in all the 17 LS seats, but its disastrous performance in the 7 December Assembly elections last year, in which it won only one seat—Ghoshamahal (Raja Singh) from the Old City of Hyderabad—dashed its hopes. However, recovering from the Assembly poll shock, the party quickly set its eyes on three to four MP seats now.
BJP’s team from Delhi, led by general secretary Ram Madhav, managed to get a prize catch of former Congress minister D.K. Aruna into the party fold and fielded her from the Mahabubnagar LS seat. Aruna, a four-time MLA from Gadwal, is an important leader with a considerable cadre base in Mahabubnagar LS constituency.
She now takes on ruling TRS candidate M. Srinivas Reddy, who replaced his party’s leader in Lok Sabha, A.P. Jithender Reddy. Congress fielded Ch. Vamsi Chander Reddy, former MLA who lost from Kalwakurthy in the recent Assembly elections. As both Srinivas Reddy and Vamsi Chander Reddy are juniors to Aruna, she is hopeful of winning the seat, for the first time for BJP.
The amount of importance BJP attaches to Aruna can be gauged from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be addressing a public meeting at Mahabubnagar on 29 March, during his first round of campaign in the Telugu speaking states of Telangana and Andhra. After attending the Mahabubnagar meeting, the Prime Minister will also speak at another meeting in Hyderabad, which is yet to be finalised.
Aruna, who visited the BJP’s Telangana office at Nampally in the city on Friday, spoke to this newspaper and said that she had quit Congress mainly because of the party’s inability to recover from the Assembly poll drubbing. “Moreover, most of the Congress leaders in the state are hand in glove with TRS and I lost all hope of Congress revival in Telangana,” she said.
Aruna was confident of BJP winning at least four to five MPs from Telangana and emerge as a strong force by the next Assembly elections. “You cannot underestimate the image and influence of Modi on people and we will spring a surprise this time,” she said, flanked by Telangana BJP president K. Laxman and others.
Nizamabad is another seat from where BJP fielded Dharmapuri Aravind, son of expelled TRS Rajya Sabha member Dharmapuri Srinivas. Srinivas was shown the door from the ruling party only because of Aravind joining BJP. Aravind will now take on sitting TRS MP K. Kavitha, daughter of CM KCR and former MP Madhu Yashki Goud.
BJP is marshalling all its forces behind Aravind as he is expected to be the rallying point for anti-incumbency against TRS. BJP president Shah and a few other Union ministers are expected to drum up support for Aravind.
Here, BJP is banking on shifting of Congress votes to it as Goud preferred not to contest from Nizamabad. He wanted to contest from Bhongir, but was forced to come back to Nizamabad.
“As Madhu Goud was scared of contesting from here, now Congress voters see in me an alternative to Kavitha who has almost monopolised all powers in Nizamabad district as the daughter of the chief minister,” said Aravind while filing his nomination on Friday. BJP has some traditional base in Nizamabad and would like to play Hindutva card to counter TRS’ Muslim minority card.
Karimnagar is another seat from where BJP fielded its former mayor Bandi Sanjay who narrowly lost from Karimnagar Assembly seat in December. Sanjay would take on sitting TRS senior MP Boinapally Vinod Kumar and Congress former MP Ponnam Prabhakar. Prabhakar, Telangana Congress working president finished third from Karimnagar Assembly seat in December. BJP leaders are counting on the same factors of Nizamabad as they hope to replace Congress as the main alternative to the ruling TRS. “Karimnagar too accounts for a large number of Muslim votes and they naturally go to TRS, so we hope to secure support of Hindus who consider Sanjay as a strong candidate compared to Congress’ Prabhakar,” BJP state spokesman Sudhakar Sharma told this newspaper.
Secunderabad is another seat BJP is confident of winning again. In this urban seat where a large number of voters from the cantonment belt are said to be backing BJP this time, especially in the wake of Pthe ulwama terror attack and the Balakot aerial strikes by Indian Air Force. There are at least one lakh voters from armed forces’ families in Secunderabad.
BJP is relieved as Dattatreya who was denied ticket is firmly behind the party and pledged his full support to Kishan Reddy who got the ticket. “I am going to canvass for the party which has given me a plenty of opportunities in the last three decades,” the former Union minister told this newspaper at his Ramnagar residence in the city.
This is a plus point for Kishan Reddy who is locked in a contest with a youngster Talasani Sai Kiran, 32, son of TRS Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav and Congress candidate and former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav. Though Secunderabad accounts for a large number of Yadavs, Kishan Reddy hopes to secure the votes of all others including the North Indians who have a sizeable presence here.
BJP is also planning to field strong candidates from Peddapalli (SC), Khammam, Zaheerabad, Chevella, Adilabad and Medak seats, who are yet to be announced. The party is in talks with possible candidates who had been denied tickets by both TRS and Congress. “We want to expand our base and presence in Telangana this time,” said Laxman, explaining his party strategy. He said the party has a chance of winning either Adilabad or Zaheerabad.