HYDERABAD: The BJP is understood to have had a grand plan when it sent Secunderabad MP G Kishan Reddy into Narendra Modi’s council of ministers. According to sources, the BJP, which is keen on spreading rapidly in Telangana, has apparently thought that Kishan Reddy is a better bet in leading the charge. As Kishan Reddy is understood to be close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he would be drawing a lot of water in the party State unit which would help him in leading the party to greater heights in the youngest State in future.
The party was down in the dumps after last December Assembly elections in the State. It had contested all the 119 Assembly seats of which it had lost security deposits in 103 and won only one seat. At a time when the dark clouds of depression were engulfing the leaders, the party rose like a phoenix in the recent Lok Sabha elections by cornering four of the 17 seats - Secunderabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad - while improving its performance in several other segments including Hyderabad, a traditional bastion of the AIMIM. The BJP polled 19.4 per cent of votes in the recent Lok Sabha elections in the State while it got only 7.1 per cent of votes in the Assembly elections. Modi, who shone like a supernova ahead of the general elections, had everyone in thrall, including the voters in Telangana with his heady potion of development laced with Hindutva.
Fits the bill
Though Telangana is a southern State, the BJP candidates who won the four Lok Sabha seats had the benefit of Modi’s rub off. The BJP stock, at the time of the elections was soaring high in the wake of, among other things, Modi ordering surgical strikes on terror hideouts in Pakistan.
Party sources said that among the four MPs from Telangana, Kishan Reddy fits the bill to take up the assignment of standing up to TRS chief and CM K Chandrasekhar Rao since he not only has vehemency in cornering him but also has a strong Hindutva streak running through him which is expected to help him in gaining ground fast in Muslim-dominated areas.
This is a very important aspect since AIMIM, which holds a sway over Old City and elsewhere in the State, is a friendly party of TRS. This way he could take both TRS and AIMIM by the horns, BJP leaders surmise. Chief Minister KCR too has been consistently adopting a policy of appeasement towards the Muslim minorities since their population is quite significant in Hyderabad and the State. Muslims constitute 12.7 per cent of the State’s population.
Ideal conditions
The BJP expects Kishan Reddy to focus on this aspect as, like the BJP Central leaders, he too is keen on taking the TRS to the cleaners though it is easier said than done in the present circumstances. This apart, none will be as keen as Kishan Reddy - who was defeated by a TRS candidate in Amberpet in the last December Assembly elections - to settle political scores with KCR.
The BJP leadership has always been unhappy over the lack of initiative on the part of the party’s State unit in taking KCR head on. Recently, party general secretary P Muralidhar Rao said the BJP is all set to sink its roots deep into Telangana soil as the conditions are conducive.