Hyderabad: Union Home Minister Amit Shah offered prayers at the Sri Bhagya Laxmi Mata temple near Charminar on Monday before leading a BJP padyatra in Hyderabad under the party's "Loktantra Bachao, Arajakta Hatao" campaign.
The march was scheduled to start at 4 pm from Nizam College and end at MJ Market in Nampally. The state unit put up large welcome displays along the route.
The campaign is the BJP's answer to the INDIA bloc's rally in Delhi on Sunday over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
The Telangana BJP's chief spokesperson, N V Subhash, said the march was "a counter-narrative to the INDIA bloc's campaign". The Election Commission, he said, was constituted long before the BJP came to power.
Earlier, state minister Ponnam Prabhakar asked that BJP MPs and Backwards Classes representatives be given a meeting with Shah during the visit.
"With a national census currently underway, we demand that a specific option for the Backwards Classes be included," he said, adding that the state also wanted the Home Minister to address complaints about deletions from the rolls.
Shah, speaking in Delhi, said the Congress was seeking power through "anarchy" and was undermining democracy.
(With inputs from PTI and media reports)