Battle of billboards rages on in Telangana

Hyderabad: The battle of billboards between the ruling TRS and the BJP has now spread from the streets of Hyderabad to the nook and cranny of Telangana State. The TRS appears to be hitting out at the BJP with vengeance in response to the latter putting up a digital countdown board against Chief Minister K […]

Hyderabad: The battle of billboards between the ruling TRS and the BJP has now spread from the streets of Hyderabad to the nook and cranny of Telangana State. The TRS appears to be hitting out at the BJP with vengeance in response to the latter putting up a digital countdown board against Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, at the BJP State office in Nampally recently.

Commuters were surprised to find the flexi banners and hoardings in various parts of Hyderabad and Secunderabad on Wednesday morning. The officials stated that the hoardings were installed by unidentified persons, criticising the Prime Minister and opposing his visit to Hyderabad. The massive hoardings appeared overnight near Parade Grounds, Begumpet, Hitec City, Abids, Nampally, Banjara Hills, Madhapur and Lakdikapul among others.

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The billboards and banners featured the hashtag #ByeByeModi, having a slogan – ‘Saalu Modi, Sampaku Modi’ (Enough Modi, don’t kill people Modi), with references to the repealed Farm Laws, Agnipath scheme, demonetisation, privatisation of public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the union government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the municipal authorities removed both the digital board at the BJP State office as well as the flexi banners as well as boards against the Prime Minister.

Surprisingly, similarly hoardings sprang up across Telangana on Thursday morning. Numerous hoardings were put up in Mancherial, Chennur, Khammam, Warangal, Mahabubnagar and several other parts of the State. The new phenomenon is catching up like a wild fire, with the TRS cadres putting up the hoardings in every nook and cranny of the State, ahead of the Prime Minister’s visit to Hyderabad.

While the TRS did not respond to speculations of putting up these hoardings, Telangana State Mineral Development Corporation (TSMDC) chairman and TRS social media wing convenor Manne Krishank took to Twitter and defended the action. “If you can stoop to silly levels with our Chief Minister Chandrashekhar Rao’s image, we will also put Prime Minister Modi’s photos like this in every constituency, village, posing hard questions. We demand the BJP to get the Chief Minister’s photo removed,” Krishnak said.