There will not be an early elections in the country and next polls will be held in mid-2019 as per the schedule and the BJP will have the Ram temple in Ayodhya in its election arsenal as a key issue. These were among the important takeaways from BJP national president Amit Shah’s visit to Hyderabad which concluded on Friday night.
In another important message to the Telangana unit of the party Shah made it clear that the party will fight the elections in the State alone and there was no question of any tie up with the ruling TRS.
At the same time he expressed doubts about the strength of Telangana BJP to take on the might of the TRS. In interactions with the State party’s election management committee and core committee Amit Shah acknowledged that the TRS was far more strong and prepared and the BJP will have to do a lot more to catch up, leaders present at the meeting said.
He asked the party leaders to intensify their public contact programmes and cover each and every village in all the Assembly and lok Sabha constituencies.
“Expose the failures and corruption and undemocratic family rule of TRS in the State”, a party leader quoted Shah as saying. “He told us our aim is to defeat TRS and bring BJP to power”, said N Ramachandra Rao, spokesman of the party.
He told the State leaders not to bother about the alliances as he will never prefer to have any pre poll alliance and would like to strengthen the party by contesting polls on its own.
Shah tried to quell speculation that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi may advance the next general elections to this year Shah told the State leaders that elections will be held in April-May next year.
There was speculation that the BJP chief had told the party leaders that the construction of the temple will begin much before the next elections prompting All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi take strong objection to it.
“Is Shah going to write the judgement when the Supreme Court is deciding the title dispute and whether Masjid was essential feature of IslamIJ”. He pointed out that earlier too the leaders of the BJP, RSS and Vishwa Hindu parishad had made similar statements to vitiate the atmosphere. “Supreme Court should also take note of such statements”, he said.
Shah also visited couple of important personalities in the city as part of his “Sampark for Samarthan” (contact for support). He met ace badminton player Saina Nehwal at her residence and apprised of various development and welfare programs of Modi Government. Saina’a parents who hail from Haryana were also present.
Shah also visited Telugu media Moghul Ramoji Rao of Eenadu Group and sought his support.
Rao is perceived to be close to Telugu Desam, the ruling party in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh but was left with little clout in Telangana.