TS BJP pins big hopes on PM's Hyderabad visit

Hyderabad: The BJP amidst a multi-front battle with the BRS over various issues, is hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Hyderabad on April 8, and his address at a public meeting in the city, will set the tone for the campaign for the Assembly elections due in the state sometime in November this year.

Modi on his one-day visit to the city, is expected to lay foundation stones for a slew of Centrally-sponsored development programmes, and dedicate to the nation and state several other completed projects. But it is his public meeting that the party is looking to the most for a booster dose of energy as it prepares itself for the coming elections.

The April 8 public meeting at the Parade Ground in Secunderabad will be Modi’s second at the venue in less than a year. The last time Modi addressed the meeting, he was visibly impressed at the size of the crowd and appreciated state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar for the effort in organizing the meeting.

 Despite the obvious political over, and undertones for Modi’s visit, party leaders say this is not a political event. The Prime Minister in his address at the public meeting, they say, will focus on the contribution of the BJP led Central government to Telangana over the years laying emphasis on the BJP’s push for development and progress in the country irrespective of which party is in power in a particular state.

 “There has been constant sniping from the BRS party leaders about how the Modi government does not do anything for Telangana. This meeting will set all those questions to rest. The Prime Minister will be focusing his address on the programmes, projects, and schemes that the Centre has taken up, completed, and is in the process of executing in Telangana,” a senior BJP leader said.

Further, the programmes that Modi will inaugurate and projects for which he lay the foundation stones are expected to invigorate BJP leaders and workers in countering what the party says is deliberate slander against the Modi government by BRS leaders.

While the eagerness among BJP leaders and workers for Modi’s visit and the public meeting message from him that will surely target the BRS government for not sharing the same enthusiasm the Centre has for developing Telangana is expected to give a fillip to the party, the challenge of doing one better than the July 22 public meeting at the same venue with crowd spilling over is something the party is currently grappling with, with the event scheduled for the morning.

Top state BJP leaders, including state party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, and several others have been spending hours with the city BJP leaders chalking out plans to ensure a very large attendance for the meeting. Kishan Reddy, at a meeting with city and Ranga Reddy district BJP leaders on Tuesday, called on them to make the meeting a grand success. “Start an extensive outreach in person and on social media platforms about the meeting and decorate the city greeting the Prime Minister,” he told the leaders.