Hyderabad: The dust yet to settle on states that went to the polls last month, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has locked Telangana as its next electoral target.
Nearly a month before Prime Minister Modi’s scheduled visit to Hyderabad on 10 May, BJP national president Nitin Nabin and national general secretary Tarun Chugh visited Hyderabad in April, just as Tamil Nadu and Kerala were going to vote.
The two leaders held meetings with senior functionaries of the party and the Telangana Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sangathan mantri, Chandrasekhar Tiwari, BJP sources told ThePrint. They discussed organisational changes, expanding leadership, and improving people-to-party connections, it is learnt.
BJP MPs and MLAs who spoke to ThePrint said they see Modi’s visit to Telangana and the huge gathering planned in Hyderabad—close on the heels of the party’s victory in three of the five states where elections were held—is being seen as the party’s bugle call to the Telangana electorate. In his maiden visit to the state after assuming office for a third consecutive term, the Prime Minister is expected to launch infrastructure and industrial projects worth nearly Rs 9,000 crore, including highways, railways, and textile parks.
Telangana BJP president N. Ramchander Rao told ThePrint, “We firmly believe that Telangana is the gateway to the South.
“Given the political scope for the BJP to establish itself in the state as a firm alternative to the Congress and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), our national president has asked us to be prepared for the saffron party to emerge as an alternative force and form the government in Telangana by 2028, winning the next assembly elections.”
The BJP has eight MLAs in Telangana and the same number of MPs from the state.
Marri Shashidhar Reddy, a veteran leader, party intellectual, and son of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Marri Chenna Reddy, told ThePrint that the BJP was meticulously planning to turn Telangana around the way West Bengal was harboured for the BJP’s performance.
“There is a vast potential in Telangana. We mustn’t forget that in 1984, when the BJP had just two MPs in India, one of them, C. Janga Reddy, came from Telangana, with the other MP, A.K. Patel, being from Gujarat. So, there has been a silent preparation since then. The failure and rejection of BRS, and the unfolding saga of Congress’s rule, ridden by corruption and non-delivery of promises, have paved the way for us to gear up for setting a narrative against the rule of both these parties,” he said.
Telangana BJP leaders also revealed that several sweeping changes are on the cards to reinforce order within the party. Leaders at odds with each other are likely to be accommodated—by nominating them to the Rajya Sabha; drafting them into the organisation for party work; or inducting them into the central cabinet.
“A lot is being done, keeping in mind Telangana. PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah are seized of the shortcomings in the state, and the span of activity in the coming months will indicate how the party top brass is focused on ensuring cohesion in the state unit,” Shashidhar Reddy said.
Nearly 32 RSS affiliates have already begun work in Telangana, it is learnt.
The RSS, the ideological parent of the BJP, has almost 7,000 active ‘swayamsevaks’ or active cadres in Telangana. The BJP is keen on grooming youngsters seeking entry into politics, and training programmes in Ghatkesar on the outskirts of Hyderabad have already begun.
Party insiders ThePrint spoke to said the formation of several committees from the state to the local village level is underway to give the BJP a “fighting chance”.
Falling back on the party’s success in West Bengal, where native Bengali speakers shouldered the campaign, prospective candidates and public intellectuals have been tasked with one mandate: fluency in Telugu.
Former MLA N.V.S.S. Prabhakar told ThePrint: “We need a face, a cult, to match the articulation of BRS founder and former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, and his bete noire and sitting Congress chief minister A. Revanth Reddy. We want to ensure we do not lack in communication and oratory skills as we did in Tamil Nadu,”
In this context, Union Minister Bandi Sanjay’s return has not been ruled out.
Sanjay, president of the Telangana BJP in 2023, was considered a powerful orator and succeeded in creating an anti-incumbency wave in the state against the ruling BRS. However, it is believed that his abrupt removal from the post cost the BJP a chance at performing better in Telangana. “But a long-term plan for Telangana that would carry the party forward beyond any individual is in the works. We want to position ourselves to take advantage of a winning wave in Karnataka, which goes to the polls just six months ahead of Telangana,” a senior leader told ThePrint.
Sunil Bansal, master strategist and the BJP’s national general secretary, who is among those credited for delivering Bengal for the party, is expected to visit Hyderabad to give the state leaders a blueprint for 2028, sources said.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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