BJP to hold national executive meet in Hyd

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will hold a meeting of its national executive in Hyderabad on July 2-3 — attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, senior ministers, top leaders, including party chief JP Nadda, and national and state office-bearers — people aware of the matter said.

The previous national executive meeting was held in Delhi in 2021.The choice of Hyderabad as the venue is a message that the party is focusing its attention on Telangana, where it considers itself as a serious contender to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said a party functionary who asked not to be named. The assembly polls in the state are scheduled to be held in 2023. “Visits by senior leaders, the interaction that they have been having with state functionaries and the workers has infused energy in the party unit.. As on date, BJP has slipped into the role of the principal opposition and is poised to take on the TRS government,” said the functionary cited above.

A second functionary said that the party has already started setting up offices in every district; activating its booth in-charges, and identifying leaders from across castes and political parties for the 2023 elections.

Senior TRS leader and former MP B Vinod Kumar said before thinking of conquering Telangana, the BJP should give an explanation to the people as to what the Centre had done for the state in the last eight years.

“It has failed to fulfil its promises made in the bifurcation act, like setting of steel plant at Bayyaram and railway coach factory at Kazipet,” Kumar demanded.

Previously, on May 15, Union home minister Amit Shah had participated in the conclusion of Praja Sangram Yatra by state BJP president Bandi Sanjay against the TRS government in the state. On May 26, PM Narendra Modi visited Telangana. During his address to the BJP workers, Modi launched a veiled attack on the Telangana Rashtra Samiti government in the state. “Pariwarwaadi’ parties only think about their own development. These parties do not care about the poor people,” he said.

The BJP is also buoyed by its performance in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, where it emerged as the second-largest party after the TRS and after winning the bypolls in Dubbaka in November and Huzurabad last year.