Hyderabad: The two-day BJP State office-bearers’ meeting held at Bhadrachalam on January 20 and 21, took some decisions aimed at strengthening the party in Telangana State, with the objective of winning the general elections to be held in 2019. This is quite in line with the stance of national leaders of the party, which is holding power at the Centre. It is no secret that the party leadership is bent upon forming its government in the State by adopting all possible means, after the 2019 elections. The leadership has already started working in this direction, as is evident from a number of events.
Even though the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections are nearly 30 months away, many of the staunch loyalists of the TRS, the ruling party in the State, are of the firm view that the party and the Government should start gearing up to meet the challenge from the BJP, which has a tie-up with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has, no doubt, taken up a number of welfare schemes and also administrative measures to win over the support of the people. The division of the State into 31 districts, from the earlier 10 and thus bringing administration nearer to the people, can be termed as a major achievement of the Chief Minister, who has been showering sops on different sections of the people and pushing forward some schemes, which are not included in the party’s manifesto.
While this is so, the TRS leadership and all the legislators would do well to take due note of the strategy being followed by the BJP in a well-planned manner to achieve its goal of getting power in the State, supporters of TRS feel. It is pointed out that as part of its grand strategy, the BJP has unleashed a multi-pronged campaign – firstly to make the people believe that the BJP Government at the Centre was releasing huge amounts to the State for development activities; secondly to create an impression among the people that the TRS government was not able even to utilize the funds given by the Centre and it was not functioning effectively; thirdly that the funds provided by the Centre were not reaching the people, and the like.
Right from the BJP national president Amit Shah to almost all party leaders, including the Central Ministers are carrying on a campaign on these aspects in a systematic manner, and hence the need for the TRS Government to be alert and effectively counter the propaganda. The BJP’s strategy can be seen from the public statement of Amit Shah at Suryapet nearly four months ago when he asserted that Centre had given Rs 90,000 crore to Telangana during the past two years and the TRS Government was not able to utilize the funds provided by the Centre. This was, however, countered by the Telangana State Finance Minister Etela Rajender, who pointed out that the Centre had given not more than Rs 36,000 crore during the past two years, but Amit Shah and some other Union Ministers continued to harp on the earlier contention.
Another instance of the attempts to mislead the people was the statement of Union Minister Kiren Rijiju that funds being given by the Centre are not reaching the people in Telangana. These and similar other statements are being regularly made by the Union Ministers and party leaders during their visits to the State, solely with the aim of creating a negative impression among the people towards the TRS government and making them support the BJP.
TRS supporters feel that keeping these factors in view, it is time the State Government concentrated on fulfilling the election promises made to the people, by effectively implementing the promised programs like double-bedroom houses to the shelter-less, KG-to-PG Education to all weaker sections, Proper Healthcare to the poor, distribution of lands to the Dalits, provision of drinking water to all families in the State, irrigation facilities to more and more areas, and implementing the promises made by KCR to different sections of the people. This, indeed, is a challenging task before the State Government and the leadership should concentrate on fulfilling this task, instead of doling out fresh promises. (P.A. Rama Rao-NSS)
It’s time TRS govt gears up to meet BJP challenge
