BJP falls silent in Telangana, leaders continue to cross swords

The BJP appears to have lost steam and even its voice after the debacle in Karnataka

Hyderabad: The continuing internal squabbles, differences and tussles among senior leaders of the State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party are leaving the party cadres confused and directionless. In fact, the BJP appears to have lost steam and even its voice after the debacle in Karnataka. There have been hardly any activities in the party since the last one month in the State, though there has been no let-down in the internal turmoil.

The BJP, which took up aggressive campaigning during the Munugode by-poll and tried to be in limelight by holding street corner meetings, padayatras and taking up the issue of TSPSC question paper leakage, looks like it could not sustain the tempo of the campaigns. In fact, the ‘Nirudyoga March’ organised by the party got extremely poor response from the people wherever it was taken out, following which the campaign itself had to be dropped.

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Interestingly, the various programmes launched to strengthen the party at the grassroots level in the State have exposed the disunity and rift among the leaders. The fact that several leaders are unhappy with the functioning style of the State unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar is a public secret now, with many having complained about it to the party leadership as well. Leaders like Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind and Huzurabad MLA Etala Rajender have been openly criticising Bandi and even making efforts to replace him before the Assembly polls.

Meanwhile, the defeat in Karnataka polls further demoralised the party cadres. The setback has made its ‘Mission Telangana’ more difficult for the saffron party, which has been dreaming of capturing power in the upcoming Assembly polls in the State. The party leaders fear that the leaders who recently joined the BJP with expectations might consider leaving before the upcoming polls. It will be more challenging now for the BJP to attract defectors from other parties, sources said.

Worried about the situation prevailing in the State unit, the BJP central leadership, which is closely monitoring the developments in Telangana, in order to infuse new enthusiasm in party cadres has decided to hold huge public meetings and rallies in the State to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda.

According to party sources, as part of the Mahajan Sampark Abhiyan, being organised by BJP across the nation, union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a public meeting in Khammam on June 15, while Nadda will attend a public meeting in Nagarkurnool on June 25. Modi will be addressing a rally in Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency on June 30.

The party leadership believes that the meetings and rallies addressed by Modi and Shah could infuse some enthusiasm in the party cadre.