BJP’s biggies conspicuous by their absence

HYDERABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which claimed during the GHMC elections that they will fight even a municipal election with ‘puri takat’ (full strength), seems to have not even put up minimum effort in the ensuing Nagarjuna Sagar byelection.  

During the GHMC elections, the saffron party had deployed former BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among several other Union Ministers. But now, except for BJP State vice-president and Nagarjuna Sagar byelection in-charge Sankineni Venkateshwar Rao, none of the other notable leaders have participated in the campaign so far. The party is missing the opportunity to capitalise on the election.  

In the recent past, BJP’s M Raghunandan Rao had won the bitterly fought Dubbaka byelection with effective campaigning. Interestingly, Rao participated in the campaign for Tirupati (AP) Lok Sabha byelection, which is scheduled on April 17, coinciding with the byelection in Telangana, for his party’s contestant K Ratna Prabha. However, Raghunandan Rao is yet to make an appearance in the Nagarjuna Sagar constituency.

BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has been attending the party’s internal wing meetings during the last week. But he too hasn’t taken out time to visit the constituency which is going to polls. Top BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kishan Reddy is participating in events held in Hyderabad, but didn’t show up in Nagarjuna Sagar.

On being asked about the leaders’ absence, Sankineni Venkateshwar Rao said their star campaigners such as Bandi Sanjay, BJP vice-president DK Aruna, Kishan Reddy and former general secretary P Muralidhar Rao will participate towards the end of the campaign. He added that BJP State in-charge Tarun Chugh will conduct a review meeting in the constituency on Monday night. “Chugh will also release a chargesheet against Jana Reddy and the TRS government,” Rao added.