HYDERABAD: “Though the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is tough to beat, bringing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power is the need of the hour,” said a 45-year-old Swapanili, who has been engaged to clean the road leading to the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC), the venue for the saffron party’s national executive meetings starting on Saturday.
She was not alone and echoed the sentiments of many others, including that of Mohan Krishna, who was putting up a huge cutout near the venue’s entrance. He said Telangana was clamouring for a change, but taking on the TRS, especially in the suburban and urban pockets, wouldn’t be easy for the BJP, which has given a call to defeat the pink party in the upcoming Assembly elections.
A majority of young voters, mostly women, who were spoken to by Express in the city, kept on contradicting each other’s claim on developments and fund disbursal, much like the leaders. A group comprising three women — Sarita, 23, Megha, 20, and Noori Khatoon, 22 — who were shopping in Gachibowli, said, “We are entering into the space age and we don’t want politics of allegations and counter-allegations, at least in our State. We want policies for prosperity and jet-speed advancement-driven development. The party, engaged in regionalism and religious ideologies, will have to change their thought to get our votes, Otherwise, NOTA jindabad (Hail NOTA).”
“What we are getting now here is only a sufficient supply of water under the Mission Bhagiratha scheme of the present government. But ‘ye dil mange more’ (this heart demands more),” Krishna quipped, adding that the people in the larger majority are in the mood for a change.
Intervening him, his associate, Munna, 40, after putting up the poster of PM Modi said the people only look at the developments in the city and not in villages. “When villages are neglected, change is bound to take place in elections. Although, I had voted for the TRS, but I think one more change to BJP just because of Modiji; not because of its State leaders, who seldom visit us,” Munna added.
Around 2 km away from the main venue of the national executive meetings, opinion differed when a number of local people selling fruits and tea were talking about the changing scenario. Niny, 35, sitting with a couple of baskets of fruits on the roadside, said: “KCR government is neither the ‘worst’ not the ‘best’. Had it been the best, I would not have been selling fruits even after being a Class 10 graduate and a native of this State”.