HYDERABAD: With decks clearing for holding municipal polls, the BJP State unit, which has launched the ‘Gandhi Sankalp Yatra’ in the State to mark 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, is now planning to use the programme to campaign for the upcoming municipal polls.
As part of the yatra, the party is organising programmes in all the 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in the State, covering over 8,000 villages. Now that the State government is finally holding municipal polls, the party is planning to use the programme to undertake intensive campaigning in all the municipalities going to polls.
According to a senior leader, they had initially thought of organising the programmes mostly in villages to strengthen the party at the grassroots level. But since the municipal polls are being held, the leadership is planning to shift the focus to urban areas where the poll is going to be held.
After its poor performance in Huzurnagar, the saffron party is taking the municipal polls very seriously. In fact, if the party cannot perform well this time, all its claims of growth in Telangana will be exposed. BJP, which won four Lok Sabha seats, has been in an upbeat mood ever since and started claiming that it was the only alternative to TRS in Telangana. However, the Huzurnagar poll outcome had proved wrong all its claims as, its candidate Kota Rama Rao lost his deposit, causing embarrassment to the party.
The BJP, which won the Secunderabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad seats, is now planning to concentrate on municipalities falling under these constituencies. Local leaders in these constituencies have already been asked to make preparations for the yatra. BJP had already started campaigning in Malkajgiri and Medak. The party had reportedly started exercise to select winnable candidates and undertaken steps to induct strong leaders from other parties. Soon, BJP State chief K Laxman will hold a meeting to discuss strategies for the civic polls at the headquarters.
There are 128 municipalities and 13 municipal corporations in the State. Polls will be held in only ten corporations. The State Election Commission is likely to issue the poll notification in the first week of November.