HYDERABAD: The Telangana BJP is banking on Union home minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state and his speech at the ‘Rythu Gosa-BJP Bharosa’ meeting in Khammam on Sunday to inject much-needed confidence among the party cadre and set the tone for the party’s poll campaign.
Shah’s meeting, after two previous cancellations, follows the two large public meetings held in Khammam by the BRS and the Congress. The BJP is working hard to ensure that Shah’s meeting is bigger than the earlier two.
Shah is expected to launch the BJP’s election campaign and speak on what the BJP has done for farmers in the state and across the country, as well as what it plans to do if it comes to power in the state.
Shah’s meeting is among the 10-odd planned, with the party hoping Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed a meeting in Warangal recently, will return to address at least two more public meetings, with Shah and party president J.P. Nadda addressing the rest of the meetings. The public events, if the party plans to hold, will be held in the next couple of months.
On Sunday, the Union home minister will fly in from Gannavaram in Andhra Pradesh and visit the Sri Sitarama Swamy temple in Bhadrachalam before arriving in Khammam for the public meeting in late afternoon. He will also meet with the BJP’s state core committee leaders at the venue for around half an hour to discuss the party's status, its preparedness and steps for ensuring its victory in the coming Assembly elections.
BJP leaders said that although the party has been working at the ground level to strengthen its polling booth level committees and senior leaders touring various districts and meeting with different sections of the society, a lot is riding on Shah’s address to give a new dose of enthusiasm to the party cadres.
“It is true that with the changes in the party leadership, which were preceded by some infighting, and a resurgent Congress, our workers are feeling as if we have lost the edge. Shah’s speech should get us out of this situation,” a senior party leader and former MLA said.
