Having Failed In K’Taka, Will BJP Achieve It’s Goal At Least In TS?

Hyderabad, Nov.19 (Maxim News): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party at the Centre, is making all out efforts to win majority seats in the ongoing Telangana State Assembly elections, and thus make an entry into South India, where it is considered weak. Significantly, the party had made similar attempts in Karnataka, but failed to make it to power in the last State Assembly elections, as it fell short of the required number of seats to form the Government.

Now, the BJP is keen on winning majority of seats in the elections in Telangana and form Government on its own. In this direction, the party leadership at Delhi is leaving no stone unturned, and ironically enough, it started luring leaders from other parties, who are disgruntled following their not getting tickets to contest the elections, to the party-fold, thus giving an impression that it is no longer a party-with a difference and that wants only those who subscribe to its ideology. In the process, the party has offered membership and Assembly seats to those who migrated from TRS, TDP and the like, though these parties are its opponents in the present elections in Telangana. Surprisingly enough, some of the former legislators, who were highly critical of the BJP and its leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi till recently, have now become staunch supporters of the saffron party and are given tickets to contest the elections.

With a view to achieve its objective of wresting power, the BJP is deploying a large number of Union Ministers and other party top leaders, including the Prime Minister, party chief Amit Shah, for campaigning in the State. According to senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, the party is utilizing the services of as many as 40 star campaigners for electioneering in the State. The BJP is contesting all the 119 Assembly seats in the State.

While, being in power at the Centre is considered one plus point for the BJP to secure power in the State, there are many minus points to it’s credit. Firstly, the Telugu people of the two States (Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) are highly disenchanted with the party and the Prime Minister, as there was no representation from these two States in the Union Council of Ministers.

So far as Telangana is concerned, the only Minister of State at the Centre, Bandaru Dattatreya, was dropped from the Ministry unceremoniously, without assigning any reason when the Union Ministry was reshuffled last time. In Andhra Pradesh, after the TDP withdrew its two members from the Union Ministry, no one from BJP was inducted into the Ministry, let alone Cabinet, though the party has two Lok Sabha members from the State. These two factors are considered, by some sections of people, as an insult to the Telugu people. There is also a feeling that South India is not given its due by the BJP leadership. Also, the negative effects of the Centre’s measures like demonetization and GST are still being felt by the people, while some of the major promises made by the party on the eve of last elections were also not fulfilled. In the fact of all these factors, whether the party would achieve its goal of forming Government in Telangana is a mute question. Only time can answer it. (Maxim News)