Absence of local ‘crowd pullers’ affects BJP campaign

Most of the BJP campaigning in rural areas is going unnoticed. Former BJP State president Bandi Sanjay, who is busy campaigning in his constituency Karimnagar, is not able to spare time for other constituencies.

Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party‘s campaigning in a majority of the constituencies in the State is not picking up on the expected lines due to the absence of popular local leaders who are capable of drawing crowds.

Most of the BJP campaigning in rural areas is going unnoticed. Former BJP State president Bandi Sanjay, who is busy campaigning in his constituency Karimnagar, is not able to spare time for other constituencies. This is affecting the BJP campaigning in the State, especially in the North Telangana region, party sources say.

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Moreover, the absence of actor-politician Vijayashanthi, who recently resigned from the BJP and joined the Congress, is also affecting the saffron party’s campaigning. The firebrand leader and popular actor had the capability to draw crowds and strengthen the support base in several constituencies.

Though there are few BJP candidates like Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, Huzurabad candidate Etala Rajender and Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh who can draw crowds, the rest of the BJP candidates are not so popular even in their own constituencies and need help from bigger leaders to get attention of the voters.

The complete dependency on the central leadership for poll campaigning is also proving counterproductive as the candidates are not able to reach out to the people. In Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, people rejected the BJP, when they tried to contest elections projecting the national leadership. BJP leaders here are of the opinion that if the same formula is adopted in Telangana, the results will be similar.

Another thing which is worrying the BJP candidates is the party’s poll manifesto, which has just a few pledges and not much mention of financial assistance schemes that could match the promises made by the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Etala in CM Race worries to Kishan Reddy:

Ever since Modi announced that a Backward Classes leader would be made the Chief Minister if the BJP won, Huzurabad BJP candidate Etala Rajender, is being seen as the Chief Minister face by many saffron leaders. In fact, recently Rajender reportedly claimed that Modi had promised to make him the Chief Minister if the BJP is voted to power. However, the party’s State unit president G Kishan Reddy has denied it and stated that no one has suggested Etala’s name as the BJP’s Chief Ministerial face.

It is a known fact that there is a cold war going on between the two after Etala was elevated as the chairman of the party’s election management committee and now that the former is being projected as the BJP’s Chief Minister face, the gap between the two is increasing every passing day.