Bandi Sanjay’s aggressive agenda benefits BJP in Hyderabad civic polls

Hyderabad: The no-holds-barred approach of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar clearly gave the party an unprecedented historic presence of 48 seats in the GHMC Council and laid the stepping stone to directly challenge the TRS for power in the 2023 Assembly elections.

In one fell swoop, Sanjay established the BJP as the clear challenger to the TRS.

Analysts had expected that Sanjay pushing an aggressive agenda during the GHMC poll campaign, threatening ‘surgical strikes’ on the Old City and bringing up the issue of Rohingya, Pakistani and Bangladeshi illegal immigrants, to prove counter-productive, but it seems to have clicked instead.

The results will add momentum to the BJP’s drive, after the Dubbak byelection victory last month, to win power in the state elections.

Sanjay with the support of party senior leaders including Union minister G. Kishan Reddy designed a perfect strategy and deployed a galaxy of national-level leaders in the campaign which created the “silent wave”.

The BJP’s campaign on changing the name of Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar and its attack on the TRS government seems to be worked out well.

The party drafted top vote-catchers like Union minister Amit Shah, who held a hugely successful road show in Secunderabad, and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who racheted up the temperature as well as Bharatiya Jana Yuva Morcha president Tejsavi Surya, the BJP MP from South Bangalore. Surya’s foray into the Osmania University campus was also well received and helped attract many people to the party.

The campaign had party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav, fresh from the victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, as incharge. Yadav has noted that this is a moral victory for the BJP and has squarely placed it as the prime opponent to the TRS.

National president J.P. Nadda participated in road shows and intellectual meetings in campaignm as did Union minister Smriti Irani. The BJP chargesheet against the TRS which was released by Union minister Prakash Javadekar, and the manifesto released by Maharashtra former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis gave for the people the ‘ring of confidence’ for the BJP.