Political heat set to rise and LS campaign enters last leg

Hyderabad: The Lok Sabha election campaign is all set to get noisier with stepped up attacks by political parties with the top two parties in the fray, the Congress and the BJP, marshalling their top leaders to campaign for their candidates with everything boiling down, amidst searing summer heat in the state, to just 10 more days left for campaigning with polling set for May 13.

The campaign will end at 5 pm on May 11, as per Election Commission of India’s guidelines.

The BJP, which has already seen its president J.P. Nadda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and home minister Amit Shah addressing public meetings and taking part in road shows over the past few days including , is all set to bring Prime Minister Modi again for a series of campaign events on May 8 and 10. Modi is scheduled to address public meetings in Vemulawada and Warangal on May 8, followed by meetings in Mahbubnagar and Hyderabad on May 10.

The Congress, with Chief Minister and TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy leading the charge so far, will see Rahul Gandhi visit the state on May 5, followed by campaign events to be addressed by Priyanka Gandhi, and Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge before campaigning comes to a close. Rahul Gandhi and Kharge had last visited the state on April 6 for the party meeting at Tukkuguda where they released the party’s manifesto.

The BJP and the Congress are fighting pitched political battles with both parties claiming that they have the edge and will get more seats than the other from Telangana in these Lok Sabha elections. Telangana has 17 seats of which the BJP had won 4 seats, the Congress had won three, the AIMIM one, and the BRS party had won nine.

However, this time, the primary battle is expected to be between the Congress and the BJP with the Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy saying his party will win from at least 14 seats, while the BJP claims that it will do so in 10 to 12 seats. All indications up to this point of time are that the BRS will find the going very tough in these elections and may be reduced to just one or two seats.

Meanwhile, having found itself reduced to a regional party after its loss in the Assembly elections, and despite its name change from Telangana Rashtra Samithi to Bharat Rashtra Samithi, the BRS has been relying on its president and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and his two deputies, KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao for the party’s campaign.