HYDERABAD: The BJP national leadership on Sunday asked its general secretary Bhupender Yadav, who had led the NDA to victory in the just-concluded Bihar assembly polls, to chalk out an electoral strategy for the city party unit to win the upcoming municipal corporation elections in Greater Hyderabad.
Sources said this is the first time that the BJP has roped in a national leader for a civic body election. It is also an indication of how serious the party is about making inroads in Telangana, especially after winning the Dubbak assembly by-election earlier this month. Until the win, BJP had just one MLA in the Telangana assembly. In 2019, the party won four Lok Sabha seats for the first time.
Yadav is known for his electoral planning and political strategy. Besides Yadav, the BJP has brought in key national leaders who had delivered good electoral results for the party in other states to campaign for GHMC polls.
On Sunday, Karnataka health minister Dr Sudhakar was appointed as co-in-charge of the team of national leaders to monitor the GHMC polls. “The team will be camping in Hyderabad,” said a senior leader. Ashish Shellar, Surjit Singh Waghela and MLA (Karnataka) Satish Reddy will be members of the team to monitor the election.
After losing Dubbak in a photo-finish contest to BJP, ruling TRS is making swift moves to conduct the elections in a short gap to not allow BJP to settle down and work on the ground. “Our top leadership is serious about the GHMC polls,” BJP floor leader in Telangana legislative council N Ramchander Rao said.
The BJP is also of the view that after emerging as a strong opposition and moving ahead of the Congress, a strong win in GHMC will put the party in a position to challenge ruling TRS in next assembly elections.