india

Updated: Jun 01, 2019 17:49 IST

The BJP which won just a single seat in the Assembly elections in Telangana in December last year, is hoping to replace the Congress as a potential alternative to the Telagnana Rashtra Samithi by next assembly elections in 2023 after its remarkable performance in the Lok Sabah elections.

The BJP won four out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, which is a major improvement compared to the lone seat it had won in 2014. The Lok Sabha election performance was in stark contrast to a humiliating show in the assembly polls to the 119-member House where 103 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party sprang surprises in the Lok Sabha elections by defeating prominent candidates like chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha in Nizamabad and his confidant B Vinod Kumar in Karimnagar. It even bagged tribal-dominated Adilabad seat where it hardly had any presence.

“The outcome of the Lok Sabha elections has clearly proved that Telangana is going to be the fertile and potential ground for the growth of BJP in the next five years. Now, our aim is to conquer the state in 2013 and form the first BJP government in the Telugu states,” Telagnana state BJP president Dr K Laxman said.

While conceding that the victory of the BJP in four seats was the result of the Narendra Modi wave that swept the entire nation, Laxman said the people had also acknowledged the BJP as the only alternative to the TRS because they lost faith in the Congress party in the four months after the assembly elections.

“After the huge debacle in the assembly elections, the ground under the Congress is gradually slipping. The party could not retain even the 19 MLA seats it had won, as 11 of them defected to the TRS either under pressure or due to their own selfish political and business interests. They betrayed the people’s mandate. So, the people have thought the BJP is going to be the only party which can fight for their cause and fight against the TRS,” Laxman said.

The BJP leader pointed out that the defeat of KCR’s daughter in Nizamabad and his close aide Vinod Kumar in Karimnagar indicated that there was an undercurrent for BJP in the state, which the party would take advantage of it and grow in the next four years to capture the state from the TRS.

Laxman claimed there was a huge political vacuum in Telangana at present. “The Telugu Desam Party has lost its ground completely and the Congress party’s base is gradually eroding. In fact, we have pushed the Congress into third position in seven or eight parliamentary constituencies. Apart from winning four seats, we came second in two other constituencies. So, we are the only potential opposition in the state,” he said.

The party leaders are of the view that induction of BJP MP from Secunderabad G Kishan Reddy into the Union cabinet as a minister of state for home affairs was a strategic move to improve its strength in Telangana. “Reddy is close to Amit Shah and both of them would chalk out plans to spread the party in the state by luring potential leaders from the Congress and the TDP in the coming days,” another senior party leader close to Reddy said.

Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, however, brushed aside any threat to the party from the BJP. “Though the BJP had won four seats, the Congress also won three MP seats in the most difficult conditions. The BJP cannot be a match for the Congress in the next assembly elections,” he said.