HYDERABAD: As the BJP looks to expand its footprint in the south, particularly in Telangana, and thwart Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s aspirations for a third term and a national political career, the party’s state unit is steadfastly pushing for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to run from the state in the 2024 Parliament elections.
Former MP from Mahbubnagar and senior BJP leader A.P. Jithender Reddy stated that he planned to formally invite Modi. "I will be giving a letter to Mr Modi during the January 16-17 BJP national executive meeting in New Delhi requesting him to contest from Mahbubnagar,” he said.
The state BJP believes that if Modi runs from Telangana, and the announcement is made before the state elections scheduled in December, it will help give a major fillip to the cadre as well as bolster the party's chances of winning power here. Telangana is the gateway for the south and the Prime Minister contesting from the state will send a strong and powerful message that the BJP wants development in the southern states and would serve the people in all the southern states, he stated.
Further, a survey conducted by the top BJP leadership in Mahbubnagar, according to party insiders, had revealed that Modi’s presence from Mahbubnagar benefit the party as a whole, both in the Assembly elections later this year and in the general elections that will follow in the early half of next year.
The Prime Minister has been giving the South more emphasis through an infrastructure push, the appointment of senior party leaders such as Dr K. Laxman to the parliamentary board, the holding of the national executive meeting in Hyderabad, and the announcement of numerous development initiatives, particularly rail and road projects.
Incidentally, when Modi visits Hyderabad on January 19, among the several projects he is schedule to inaugurate is that of the doubled railway line between Secunderabad and Mahbubnagar, a Rs. 1,410 crore project. He will also lay the groundwork for a Rs. 1,850 crore national highways project that includes 103 kilometres of National Highway 167N between Mahbubnagar and Chincholi in Karnataka.
