November 29, 2020 4:55:28 am
Yogi Adityanath in Hyderabad on Saturday. Quick
Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday, Yogi Adityanath said, “If we win, we will make Hyderabad Bhagyanagar … Some people asked me if Hyderabad can be renamed Bhagyanagar. I said why not? I told them we changed the name of Faizabad as Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj after BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh. So why can’t Hyderabad be Bhagyanagar?
Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister joins a long list of leaders deployed by the BJP to campaign for the December 1 elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, from the Union Minister of the Interior, Amit Shah, who has scheduled to visit the city on Sunday, including party chairman JP Nadda, Union minister Smriti Irani, and youth wing chairman Tejasvi Surya, known for his inflammatory speeches. In addition, the party has arranged for Bhupender Yadav, the party’s general secretary and party winner in Bihar, to camp in Hyderabad to supervise the electoral work.
Never before has a municipal election in Telangana or the former combined state of Andhra Pradesh witnessed this degree of attention. What makes it different this time around is the high-pitched BJP campaign, with the party deploying its heaviest artillery before the polls.
This is the first time that the BJP, which has only four seats in the current municipality, has emerged as a key contender against ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in the GHMC elections. The TRS, which swept 2016 polls it challenged in partnership with Asaduddin Owai’s AIMIM, has 99 out of 150 seats. The AIMIM has 44, the Congress 2 and the TDP 1.
However, a lot has changed since 2016. While the TRS swept the Assembly elections in December 2018, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party lost four crucial seats to the BJP. The BJP, most recently emboldened by its victory in the bypoll in Dubbaka (formerly a TRS stronghold) earlier this month, has decided to do its best in the GHMC polls.
The BJP defiance has even forced TRS to disassociate itself from AIMIM, which has almost impenetrable control over the 44 wards of the Walled City. Congress, meanwhile, has been swept away by the high-octane campaign of TRS, BJP and AIMIM.
For the BJP, winning the GHMC is linked to a broader ideological battle. The party, which links Hyderabad to its Muslim identity, AIMIM and the Owaisi family, is looking for an opportunity to take the fight to the AIMIM camp.
The BJP leaders are not missing the opportunity to link Hyderabad and Owaisis with the Razakars, Nizam’s powerful private militia. Party leaders say that AIMIM’s attempt to grow out of state, including the recent Bihar elections, in which Owai’s party won five seats, must be controlled in its Hyderabad stronghold.
Speaking in Hyderabad last week, Surya said: “If you vote for Owaisi here, it becomes strong in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Muslim towns in Karnataka… Who is Owaisi? Owaisi is Jinnah’s new avatar. We must defeat him. Every vote you give to the BJP is a vote for Bharat, Hindutva, to strengthen the country. A vote for Owaisi … is a vote against India and all that India stands for ”.
The party also sees the election of GHMC as an opportunity to test its strategy and strength for a larger battle for the state and beyond.
The BJP, which now has two MLAs and four MPs from Telangana, is considering the 24th Assembly and the four Lok Sabha constituencies that are part of the GHMC area.
“For the BJP, there is nothing to lose. What we win at this GHMC will be a great achievement, as it will help the party get off to a good start for the next Assembly elections. The BJP wants to emerge as the alternative force in Telangana, ”said a senior party leader.
The GHMC is also part of the party’s broader strategy to emerge as a political force in the southern states. Other than Karnataka, the BJP doesn’t have much of a presence in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala.
Even before the 2019 elections, the BJP had prepared a plan for its Mission South, focusing on Telangana and Tamil Nadu. With the party anticipating that opposition to the incumbent could affect its chances in Tamil Nadu, where it is fighting elections with the ruling AIADMK, Telangana is its best bet, said a senior BJP leader.
While speaking about the importance of the GHMC election for the party, BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav told The Indian Express: “This is an election that affects one third of the state and its people. We want to make Hyderabad an international city and make it a model for others. We fight for a good and clean administration and we want to fight the corruption of the TRS ”. The party, he added, is eager to “expand at the grassroots level also in the southern parts.”
The BJP estimates are that the party could win between 25 and 50 seats. “If we can win more than 45, the BJP could even be the largest party in the corporation. We can also weaken AIMIM, which has a significant base of support in Hyderabad, ”Yadav said.
However, TRS and AIMIM have rejected the pressure from the BJP.
Said P Pavani Reddy, TRS corporate from Dr. AS Rao Nagar’s district, “I have not seen this kind of political heat in Hyderabad even during the Assembly elections. The BJP has raised the tone to a different level. Of course, TRS will win comfortably. The people of Hyderabad want to live in peace, not to be divided along community lines. ”
“They are making a lot of noise, but during the floods last month, where was the BJP? I don’t think their strategy to divide people along communal lines works here, ”said Riyasath corporate veteran of AIMIM Nagar Mirza Mustafa Baig.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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