BJP sees a bright prospects of winning the Assembly polls in Telangana, due in 2019 and has already started planning strategies for it. Amit Shah‘s three day visit to Telangana is also a part of the strategy to win over the dalits and backward classes of the state. During his visit Shah, alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government had failed in meeting minimum needs of people like toilets, housing and drinking water in the past three years. He also blamed the TRS government of failing to utilise Centre’s support provided to them. Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, has asked Amit Shah, to either prove his allegations or apologise to the government.
Congress had high hopes of forming the government in Telangana, when the state was formed in 2014, but stood at second and further seems to be going downhill. Taking advantage of this BJP grabs the opportunity of becoming the main opponent to TRS. As per the results of 2014, TRS had won 82, of the total 120 seats, Congress won 19, BJP won 5, AIMIM won 7 and TDP won 3 seats. Telangana, was carved out from the north-western part of Andhra Pradesh. The demand for a separate state rose as most of the jobs and businesses here were with people from Andhra.
During his visit from May 22-24, Shah met BJP booth-level workers in Nalgonda and raised local concerns with villagers. He shared a meal with a Dalit family to send across a message to the masses that BJP cared about the backward classes and also did not practice any discrimination on the bases of caste. Though CM KC Rao charged that the food for not prepared by the dalit family it was cooked by a Reddy family, these allegations were denied by BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao.
A BJP leader said that, even though TRS had won the first election, it did not have much to offer now, hence BJP sees the opportunity of forming the government here. He also said that Telangana is mostly a Hindi speaking state, therefore language will not be a barrier for BJP.
During his speeches, Shah mainly focused on development and job creation. Shah’s visit to a Dalit household is part of BJP’s strategy to woo the backward and Scheduled Caste votes. That Modi is from the backward caste will be emphasised by the party in the coming months. These two sections are likely to form BJP’s core vote-bank.
BJP is reportedly in touch with leaders from other parties who enjoy a mass base. Several intellectuals and leaders sidelined by KCR are being approached by BJP.