HYDERABAD: If the BJP celebrated a landslide win in Bihar, its fortunes took a nosedive in Hyderabad, where the party lost its deposit in the Jubilee Hills byelection.
The contrasting outcomes, party insiders say, capture the BJP’s topsy-turvy fate in Telangana — a state where it once appeared to be on the rise after winning eight Lok Sabha seats with a 35% vote share.
Jubilee Hills is one of the key Assembly segments in the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Minister G Kishan Reddy. Yet, the bypoll result has once again put the BJP state leadership under the scanner, as the party not only failed to retain its earlier tally of 25,000 votes but also slipped so far as to forfeit its deposit.
The party cadre is visibly demoralised, and doubts loom large over how the leadership plans to navigate the upcoming local body and GHMC elections. Leaders, sources said, are engaged in soul-searching, trying to understand how the campaign fell apart and why the party was caught flat-footed while the Congress “cleverly targeted and trapped” both the BJP and BRS by floating allegations of a secret understanding between them.
Lacklustre campaign
Several leaders are also reportedly questioning why prominent faces such as MPs M Raghunandan Rao, Dharmapuri Arvind, Eatala Rajender and others were missing in action during the campaign. “Why were they not invited? What played out behind the curtains?” is the buzz doing the rounds in party circles.
Another burning question is the choice of candidate. Leaders are openly wondering why the party did not field a stronger or BC leader instead of Lankala Deepak Reddy, who had already faced defeat earlier. “Who backed him? And who takes responsibility for this humiliating drubbing?” a senior functionary asked.
With the GHMC and local body elections around the corner, leaders fear the party might be caught on the back foot again. They worry that the state leadership has no clear roadmap to energise the cadre as they face a two-front battle — the ruling Congress on one side and a resurgent BRS on the other.
Some senior leaders candidly admitted that the BJP had failed to take Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development and welfare programmes to the people, and equally failed to spotlight the “failures and misgovernance” of both the Congress government and the previous BRS regime.
A senior leader summed it up bluntly: “No one owned the Jubilee Hills election. The campaign was treated like a formality. If this attitude continues, it will cost the party dearly in the future — at a time when the high command has placed enormous hopes on Telangana.”
Contrasting moods: BJP workers burst firecrackers as they celebrate NDA’s victory in Bihar elections, at the state party office in Nampally, Hyderabad on Friday; (right) The BJP party office wears a deserted look during counting of votes for Jubilee Hills bypoll | SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN