VIJAYAWADA: Excitement is building up in the BJP camp in AP with the finalisation of party president Amit Shah's three-day visit to the city beginning on August 28. His visit is part of his 95-day nationwide tour which began in Jammu and Kashmir in April to strengthen the party.His visit to AP is being viewed as one intended not only to expand the party's presence in the state where it has an alliance with the ruling Telugu Desam Party, but also review the progress the party state leadership has made in improving its footprint.
“Amit Shah's tour has been confirmed, but we are yet to chalk out programmes during his three-day stay. He is expected to confer with core committee and state office-bearers and elicit their opinions on making the party more visible in the state since it has not yet come out of the Telugu Desam's shadow,” a senior BJP leader told TNIE.
Shah is likely to have confabulations with caste groups to learn their demands and requirements and make them connect with the BJP and its programmes.
He may also dine with SCs and STs whose support is sine qua non for any party to grow. In fact, it was this social re-engineering that he had done which paid dividends in the 2014 elections as most of the candidates were selected from other than dominant castes, giving an impression that the party is for all and not for the socio-econommic oligarchy.
Amit Shah, who has acquired cult status for his contribution in steering the party to power in 18 states in the country and at the Centre, is being looked at with awe by party functionaries as he takes stock of Andhra Pradesh which is virgin soil for the BJP and find ways to expand it independent of the ruling Telugu Desam Party. As the election of the party state executive has been pending for a long time, his visit has set off speculation that he might turn his attention to this important task so that the new team can turbo-charge effort that is going on at present in winning people to BJP's side.
Most active BJP prez
Amit Shah in his three years at the helm of the party has come to be known as the most active president of the party, for he always is on the move, interacting with people and party functionaries all the time. Since the party's ascension to power in 2014, Shah has travelled more than 5.6 lakh km and visited 315 of India's 680 districts