BJP Launches 'Basti Baata' Program to Regain Presence in Hyderabad and Urban Areas

Hyderabad: In a bid to take its battle against the BRS government to the people, and to make its presence felt in Hyderabad and urban areas in the state, the BJP said its leaders will visit all the bastis for two days this month and collect complaints and petitions.

With Union minister and TS unit state president G. Kishan Reddy declaring on Saturday that the party will have a ‘basti baata’ programme on August 16, and 17, the BJP has declared that it desperately wanted to regain its lost position in the city, as far as the Assembly is concerned.

The BJP is also hoping that its MLAs from other states, set to visit each of the 119 Assembly constituencies in the state from sometime around August 20, will also be able to provide the state party leaders, and the national leaders unbiased feedback on the party’s strength and presence in each of the constituencies.

The last Assembly polls in 2018 came as a shocker for the BJP in Hyderabad as four of its MLAs —Kishan Reddy himself from Amberpet, Ch Ramachandra Reddy from Khairatabad, Dr K. Laxman from Musheerabad, and N.V.S.S. Prabhakar from Uppal — losing. It won from only one city Assembly seat – Goshamahal, represented by D. Raja Singh who won for the second time in row but has since been suspended from the party.

Kishan Reddy won the subsequent Lok Sabha election from Secunderabad, and Dr Laxman found a place in the Rajya Sabha after being elected to the Upper House from Uttar Pradesh. But, for the BJP, the 2018 losses and the fact that it fell way behind its arch rival AIMIM, which won from seven constituencies, has been a sore point.

It now hopes that going to the bastis and interacting with people will help it regain its strength in the city. Though the party won from 48 wards of the 150 in December 2020 GHMC elections and showed that it does have presence in the city, it now wants to improve its tally in the city and GHMC limits in the coming Assembly elections.