The top leadership of the BJP, which has put Telangana on the party’s radar for long and seeks to take on the ruling Bhartiya Rashtriya Samithi (BRS) in the Assembly elections due before December, held a meeting here on Tuesday with State BJP leaders. This comes close on the heels of the arrest of Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia in the liquor case where the name of BRS MLC K Kavitha has also figured.
The name of Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, has figured in the report filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last year, for the remand of businessman Amit Arora in the Delhi liquor policy case.
Kavitha has rejected the charges and slammed the Centre saying, "We will go to jail for the public. For eight years the Opposition States have been targeted but we are not afraid and we will not stop exposing BJP.’’
BJP bigwigs, including Home Minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda held a meeting here with party leaders from Telangana as the party sees itself a challenger to the BRS and taking the space of the Congress.
Telangana BJP president, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, besides several other central and State party leaders were present in the meeting. With an eye on Assembly polls, the BJP had held its two-day national executive meeting in Hyderabad in July last year. The party held its first post-Covid physical meeting in Hyderabad after a gap of 18 years with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a massive rally in the State Capital on the theme of local culture and tradition. The party also promised Hyderabad to be re-named as ‘Bhagyanagar’ after Bhagyalaxmi temple.
The BJP had surprised BRS by performing credibly well in the elections of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election in December 2020 with the BJP standing second winning 48 wards and the AIMIM of Asaduddin Owaisi securing 44 with Congress retaining only two seats.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) now renamed BRS had retained power in the State in 2018 with a two-third majority.
The TRS had then won 88 seats against 63 seats it had won in 2014. The AIMIM won 7 seats. The Congress bagged just 19 seats against 21 in 2014. The TDP of Chandrababu Naidu won 2 seats. The TDP had contested elections in an alliance with Congress.