Telangana Vimochna Sankalp Rally to mark the “Hyderabad liberation Day” in Nizamabad seems to have left the State leaders and workers of the BJP feeling let down.
In the party circles the rally was being described as “anti-climax to a big drama” as the speech of chief guest Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh was without any major fireworks.
Though he referred to the liberation of Hyderabad on September 17, 1948 and alleged that the local population suffers lot of atrocities at the hands of Razakars under the rule of Nizam, a larger part of his 30-minute long speech was about other issues including relations with Pakistan and other initiatives of Modi Government.
The biggest disappointment for the State BJP, however, came from the fact that Rajnath was completely silent on the State TRS Government and did not make any critical reference to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
While political pundits were interpreting it as an indication of the BJP’s strategy to keep its options open on an electoral understanding or tie-up with the TRS, unhappy State BJP leaders said that Rajnath’s “ice cool” speech undid their hard work over the last fortnight.
The Statewide yatra by State BJP president K lakshman and other leaders had virulently targeted the TRS Government for its failure to celebrate “Hyderabad liberation Day” officially. They also condemned the TRS Government for its failure on other fronts. Their focus was on KCR’s promise that after Telangana was formed September 17 will be celebrated officially.
On the contrary the TRS reacted to the BJP campaign strongly and alleged that the saffron party was trying to divide the people on communal and religious line for the electoral gains in the name of liberation Day.
If this was the purpose of the rally at Nizamabad, Rajnath Singh gave no inkling of it. In fact he indirectly promoted Hindu Muslim amity by talking at length of the sacrifice of Ashfakhullah Khan during freedom struggle.
The speakers like Union Minister of state Hansraj Ahir, P Murlidhar Rao, K lakshman Bandaru Dattayreya and G Kishan Reddy, who addressed before Rajnath Singh all targeted TRS government but the main speaker's silence created a lot of confusion in the party rank and file.
"During our campaign over the last two weeks we had targeted the KCR government but our central leaders seems to be having other thoughts. It has left us confused", said a state party leader on condition of anonymity.
He said that the state BJP was continuously portraying the TRS as its main rival and expressing confidence of coming to power in 2019 but the central leasers were not giving this message.
The local leaders point out that even the state Congress leaders were more hard hitting their speeches against the TRS government.
State Congress president M Uttam Kumar Reddy speaking at Hyderabad said,"Telangana today is being ruled by new Razkars".