BJP sets Mission 60-Plus, Shah to announce names

Mission 60+ is the target BJP president Amit Shah has set the party for the Assembly elections, and will whip up the cadre to meet the mark at his meeting at Karimnagar on Wednesday.

Mr Shah is reportedly targeting the Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar and Warangal districts largely on the basis of urban voters who had shown substantial support for BJP candidates earlier, said a party source.

Twenty states had elected the BJP under Mr Shah’s leadership, and TS unit president K. Laxman hoped that the magic would rub off on Telangana state. “Why cannot Telangana be a BJP-led state? When it is possible in a majority of states in the country, why not here? That’s the intention behind Mr Shah’s focus on Telangana.”

Mr Shah held a series of meeting with state leaders and has finalised the list of contestants, sources said. It is expected that Mr Shah would announce names at Karimnagar.

Dr Laxman said the party leadership had spent three days filtering the aspirants for all the 119 constituencies, before recommending candidates purely on the consideration of winnability.

It is expected that dissidents who failed to secure tickets from the TRS and the Congress could head towards the BJP.

Dr Laxman said at a meeting the Mission 60+ target was the guiding star. “We will invite winnable candidates no matter which party they come from. But they should abide by our policies and philosophy,” he said.

Dr Laxman said the BJP had extended to all sections of society, it was no longer perceived as a party limited to the forward communities. He said the party was strong organisationally. “The anti-Dalit stance of the TRS was exposed. We have reached out to all sections including women, youth, BCs, Dalits and all sections to strengthen the party,” Dr Laxman said.