New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday appointed its general secretary Bhupender Yadav as the party’s election in-charge for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls, a move that highlights the significance it has attached to the local body elections.
In a statement, the party said its president J P Nadda has also appointed Union Minister Anurag Thakur the election in-charge for the upcoming local polls in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
K Sudhakar, a Minister in Karnataka, Ashish Shelar, BJP’s chief whip in Maharashtra Assembly, Gujarat BJP leader Pradip Singh Vaghela and Karnataka BJP MLA Sathish Reddy will be co-incharges with Yadav for the GHMC polls, the statement said. Party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain and its MP from MP Sanjay Bhatia will be co-incharges for the J-K polls.
With the BJP making big gains in Telangana, first seen in the Lok Sabha polls and then emphasised by its surprise win over the TRS in a recent Assembly bypoll, the party is looking at the GHMC polls to make a political statement in the State.
It is likely to aggressively target the ruling TRS and its ally AIMIM, which has a stronghold in the Muslim regions of the State capital, to emerge as a force in the GHMC.
The appointment of a national general secretary to mind the city polls underscores the importance the saffron party has attached to the polls.