Uttar Pradesh Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath went on a tour of Hyderabad on Saturday to increase the chances of the BJP winning the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Council elections to be held next month. Adityanath addressed a public meeting in Shah Ali Banda, which is situated in the Old City of Hyderabad, considered a solid base of the II India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM).
During his speech, he proposed that Hyderabad can be renamed Bhagyanagar if the BJP wins the civic body polls. According to ANI, UP CM said: “Some people asked me if Hyderabad’s name could be changed to Bhagyanagar. I said why not? I told them that we renamed Faizabad and Ayodhya and Allahabad as Prayagraj after BJP came to power in UP. So why can’t Hyderabad be renamed to Bhagyanagar?
The campaign for the GHMC elections, which will take place on December 1, has already seen several heated verbal exchanges between Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), AIMIM and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Adityanath roadshow in Hyderabad is being seen as the BJP’s attempt to gain some ground in Telangana and in the southern states of India, where the party has been unsuccessful in achieving control, with only Karnataka being the exception. Regional parties continue to have a firm grip on states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, along with Telangana and the BJP plans to use the GHMC elections to make some progress in Telangana.
The great interest of the BJP in the elections to the Greater Hyderabad City Council can be seen in the large electoral rallies it has held in the state so far. BJP chief Jagat Prakash Nadda, Tejasvi party lawmaker Surya and Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Smriti Irani have held major demonstrations or tours in the state ahead of Adityanath’s visit.
Telangana currently has two BJP MLAs in the legislative assembly and has four deputies in the state Lok Sabha. BJP is willing to use civic polls as a means to increase its presence in the state.
The results of the municipal elections of Greater Hyderabad will be declared on December 4.
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