HYDERABAD: In what has come as a rude shock to the newly appointed in-charges (Prabharis) to all 119 Assembly constituencies in Telangana by BJP’s State leadership, BJP general secretary and the party’s in-charge for Telangana Sunil Bansal informed them that they will not be allowed to contest in their home constituencies in the next general elections, as they will be occupied with performing duties in the constituencies assigned to them.
The direction was given by the central leader during a meeting of all the in-charges at BJP’s party office in Nampally on Saturday, which came as a jolt to the MLA seat aspirants among the Prabharis.
As they were all left in shock, and some of them expressed their concerns, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay had to intervene and clarify that those who were planning to contest in the Assembly elections will be relieved six months after completing their work in their assigned constituencies, so that they can go back to their native constituencies and work there.
The Prabharis have been assigned by the party to strengthen the party from the booth-level, by working with the local cadre and strengthening the booth-level committees and Shakthi Kendras (a combination of a few booths).
In fact, the party leadership has also recently decided to include ‘Panna Pramukhs’ also called page in-charges in every booth, for micro-management of the voter-list, as part of the booth-level committees’ strengthening strategy.
There were a set of activities and responsibilities assigned to the Prabharis, who will report to the state leadership from time to time about the progress in the assigned constituencies. The concern of the Prabharis was that some of them had contested Assembly elections in the past and were looking forward to contesting again and spending time in their home constituencies was also crucial for their winning prospects. After Sanjay’s clarification, all the Prabharis heaved a sigh of relief.
It was a busy day of back-to-back meetings held at the party office, where not only the Munugode byelection was discussed, but also the progress of ‘Parliament Prawas Yojna,’ apart from ‘Praja Gosa-BJP Bharosa’ bike rallies in all 119 constituencies which are supposed to be completed by December.
Due to the Munugode byelection, the bike rallies have been given a break and will be resumed after the results are out. The new deadline for completing the bike rallies has been set for February.
BJP’s central election committee has also officially declared Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy as the party’s candidate for the byelection on Saturday. With the announcement, the party’s state leadership has sought an appointment with the returning officer of Munugode for filing his nomination papers on Monday, which is a tentative day.
The party leaders are planning to hold a rally and a public meeting after the filing of the nomination. Bandi Sanjay, Tarun Chugh, Vivek Venkataswamy, Dr Manohar Reddy, and other leaders are expected to accompany Rajagopal Reddy for the nomination.
Meanwhile, BJP’s in-charge for the state Tarun Chugh, Sunil Bansal and Arvind Menon are expected to hold another set of marathon meetings at the party office on Sunday as well. Bhupendra Yadav, Union Minister for Labour, Employment, Environment, Forest and Climate Change will be in Hyderabad on an official visit on Sunday.