NALGONDA: It was 12.30 noon. Theretpally, a nondescript village in Nalgonda was simmering under intense heat wave. Braving the extreme hot weather, BJP national president Amit Shah, like an ordinary foot soldier of his party, undertook door-to-door visits in the village holding two pamphlets in his hand. One was about the welfare schemes being implemented by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, and another was aimed at exposing the failures of the K Chandrasekhar Rao’s government in the state.
As soon as he reached every house in the village, the BJP president at first greeted the respective family members with folded hands, saying Namasthe. Soon after that, he tried to gather their views on various welfare schemes launched by Central and state governments with a special emphasis on Swachh Bharat mission.
After completing his conversation with the respective family head, Amit Shah pasted the sticker relating to party’s expansion programme, “Pandit Deendayal Jansatabdi Karya Vistar Yojana” on the doors of each house, as a symbolic gesture to show that the party has completed its ‘publicity campaign’ in that particular house.
Thus, the BJP national president on Monday, during the first day of his three-day tour in Nalgonda district, visited a few houses in the village, which is considered as the bastion of Communists. He guided his party leaders and workers on how to undertake door-to-door campaign in each polling booth across the State from May 29 to June 12 as part of the 15-day drive to hold Karya Vistar Yojana to strengthen the BJP at grassroots level.
Farmers pour out their woes
When Amit Shah enquired into the problems they are facing, P Bhikshmaiah, a farmer from the same village, told the BJP boss that they were not getting sufficient power for agricultural pump sets. Bhikshmaiah, then, complained to Shah that they were not getting water for their irrigation needs. Stating that excess presence of fluoride in groundwater is posing a threat to their health, the farmer urged to initiate measures to ensure that they get safe drinking water.
‘All are equal in BJP’
Amit Shah fell back on Left Parties’ tenet of ‘egalitarianism’ to prove that all are equal in BJP during his visit to Theretpally, once bastion of the Communists. He ensured that all presidents of the BJP units from booth level to national level were on the same dais. “Today is a historic day. Party’s booth, village, mandal, district, state unit presidents shared the dais with me, who is national president, at Theretpally. This proves that all are equal in BJP,” Shah said.
Later, while addressing some of the intellectuals belonging to the state at Nalgonda town, Shah said BJP is the only party where internal democracy prevails. “Any person who has the potential to lead people can get top posts in our party. If BJP comes to power in the state, you won’t find dictatorial tendencies in its government like you are witnessing in the regimes led by regional parties,” the BJP boss reportedly said.