Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Telangana unit president K. Laxman began a month-long ‘Praja Chaitanya Yatra’ (mass awakening march) from Zaheerabad district on Tuesday.
Through his tour, which will include public meetings across various districts, the Musheerabad legislator will highlight the ‘failures’ of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with regard to the promises it made before coming to power.
According to a BJP functionary who did not want to be named, Laxman will also hold meetings with different groups like farmers, caste groups and party workers. Though the programme is likely to end soon after panchayat elections in Telangana, which will most likely begin in February, the BJP functionary stated that it is not a prelude to party’s election campaign for the 2019 assembly elections.
“The main aim of this tour is to create awareness about the TRS’s failures with regard to the aspirations of Telangana’s citizens,” said BJP spokesperson A. Rakesh Reddy. He added that Laxman will tour in about half of the state’s 31 districts and talk about issues concerning farmers, unemployment and government programmes.
The Yatra is also part of the party’s change in strategy. A few months ago, senior party leaders from the BJP and its parent body, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), met and decided to conduct more public meetings to counter the TRS, after failing to attract leaders from other political parties to join the BJP.
It had expected defections from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is also its alliance partner, but TDP leaders and office bearers shifted to the TRS and Congress instead. Currently, the BJP has five MLAs in the 119-member Telangana assembly.
“The BJP has a lot to do in Telangana and Laxman has to show (to the central leadership) that the party is doing something in the state. The point is that the BJP doesn’t want to play second fiddle. Today they have only five MLAs, and they might win new seats or might even lose them in the 2019 assembly elections. The party wants to be in a strong bargaining power, hence it is taking up these activities,” said political analyst Palwai Raghavendra Reddy.