GHMC 2020 Election: The BJP launched an aggressive campaign for the Hyderabad polls.
Hyderabad:
Long before the results of the ballot counting in Hyderabad municipal elections emerged today, BJP leaders began posting congratulatory tweets.
The celebrations may have been premature, but the BJP has made progress in Hyderabad.
The first trends to emerge from Hyderabad indicate a shift in popular mood and the shape of things to come.
Transformative development policies are hard to beat and always triumph over empty populism and false narrative.#GHMCElectionresults#GHMCwithBJP
– Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) December 4, 2020
We have found our foothold and have had a profound impact in South India. The victory in Hyderabad is proof of this. And let me assure you #TENNESSEE it is not far. # 2021elections we will make a grand entrance in TN. Continue believing in @Narendra Modi hee and his clean government. @ BJP4India@blsanthosh
– KhushbuSundar (@khushsundar) December 4, 2020
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The party has managed to establish itself firmly in the seat of the Opposition, as the party that challenges the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and emerges as a great force, an alternative to the ruling party.
If not now, at least in 2023, the BJP can hope to take advantage of TRS’s six-year anti-incumbent rule. The party can be seen as a viable alternative to TRS.
Congress did not put up a vigorous fight. Compare it to the BJP, which included all the top leaders for its campaign. Not a single congressional leader visited Telangana to push the party’s opportunities or speak on its behalf, even as a serious contender.
A senior leader told NDTV that the concern was that the original TDP vote in Hyderabad appeared to have carried over to the BJP.
The BJP cadre is also enthusiastic about the party leadership sending all the signals that they consider Telangana important to their plans.
That is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s phone call to Bandi Sanjay of his party, a businessman who became a deputy and then head of state, after the elections, is significant. That was a call to boost morale, congratulate the state BJP on a good job done, and assure them that the central leadership will do everything possible to support state unity. Once again it was a sign that the BJP is taking Telangana seriously.
This is part of the BJP’s strategy to be aggressive in the south and to work in Telangana as its second gateway to the south after Karnataka.
Three, the BJP was also testing waters. By targeting Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM, the party attempted to polarize voters beyond the old city of Hyderabad. BJP strategists also hope to make a dent in TRS and congressional votes.
It now appears that TRS will emerge as the largest party in municipal elections. They may not need the support of AIMIM to win the office of mayor. If they did, even then the BJP can tell people, “We told you.” As Amit Shah said: “They do ILU, ILU (I love you) behind closed doors.” That can become another arsenal for the 2023 election.
The BJP countdown to the Telangana ballot box has begun. The party already has four deputies after last year’s national elections. This, a few months after the 2018 state elections in which the BJP won just one of Telangana’s 119 seats. After recent ballots by the Dubbak assembly, that score was two.
The party is likely now to focus on the Nagarjunasagar constituency, where the MLA Nomula Narsimha just died.
Many see the possibility that the politically powerful Reddy caste, now veering toward the BJP like Congress, is a greatly weakened force.
Disgruntled elements in the TRS as well as leaders who do not see a future for Congress, would move to the BJP, which has presented itself as a strong contender for power in the upcoming elections in Telangana.
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