Shah: BJP will fight all 119 seats in Telangana

BJP chief says party will fight polls alone

BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday kicked off the party’s poll campaign for Telangana Assembly elections saying that the party will contest on its own and field candidates on all the 119 seats.

Declaring that the ruling TRS will not come back to power, Mr Shah launched the BJP’s campaign by sounding the conch, sounding the drum and beating 119 trumpets, with each trumpet representing one constituency.

At a public meeting in Mahabubnagar, Mr Shah hoped that the party would emerge as a “deciding factor” in the polls.

Addressing the gathering, Mr Shah tore into the TRS and chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao for failing to fulfil the aspirations of people for which Telangana state was created.

Taking a dig at Rahul Gandhi, he said that the Congress leader was day- dreaming of coming to power in Telangana.

Hyderabad, Sept. 15: Virtually sounding the poll bugle, BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said his party will contest the upcoming Telangana Assembly election on its own.

In the city to formally launch the party’s poll campaign at a public meeting in Mahabubnagar, about 110 km from here, Mr Shah said the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) would not go for a tie- up with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi ( TRS), the ruling party in the southern state.

The BJP would not have any alliance with any party and it hoped to emerge as a “deciding factor” in the upcoming polls, he said.

“We are not going to have any political tie- up with the TRS. The BJP will fight on its own strength. We will fight against appeasement politics also,” Mr Shah told reporters here, before leaving for Mahabubnagar.

The saffron party would also fight against the “stalled progress” of the state, he said, when asked about allegations of a tacit understanding between the BJP and the TRS.

On the proposed Grand Alliance of the Congress and other parties in the state, Shah said the Telugu people had not forgotten how the Congress had treated their leaders like former ( undivided) Andhra Pradesh chief minister Anjaiah and former prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao.

Hitting out at the TRS, he claimed that the K Chandrasekhar Rao- led party was earlier in favour of simultaneous elections to the state Assembly and Lok Sabha, but subsequently changed its stand.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed ‘ one nation, one election’. ( Caretaker CM) Chandrasekhar Rao had also supported it initially.... I want to ask a straight question to the ruling party ( TRS) and the chief minister. Why are you burdening the people with so much of expenditure ( due to polls)? What is the reason for advancing the election by nine months?,” Mr Shah asked.

He wanted to know why the state Assembly was prematurely dissolved, just a few days after the chief minister had expressed his willingness for simultaneous polls.

Quoting from reports, the BJP chief said 4,200 farmers committed suicide in the state in the last four years and claimed that some of the schemes of the central government were not implemented in Telangana properly.

We are not going to have any political tie- up with the TRS. The BJP will fight on its own strength. We will fight against appeasement politics also. — Amit Shah,

BJP chief