Hyderabad: The state BJP leadership is hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a couple of campaign meetings in Telangana state preferably before the election notification is announced. If that materalises, it will be a show of strength for the Other Backward Communities (OBC) as the BJP is reaching out to BCs and OBCs to shed its upper caste image. Mr Modi’s meet could be a “OBC Sammelan” in Telangana state, a leader said.

BJP leader G. Kishan Reddy said that Mr Modi would certainly campaign in the state but the schedule was not known. He wished that the meet would be held before the election schedule was published.

With 50 per cent of the vote, BCs and OBCs form the single largest chunk for political parties to target in the state. The ground is being prepared to shed inhibitions and reach out to those sections that the BJP has neglected. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why BJP wants to contest all the 119 seats in the state.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat recently gave a call for inclusive social engineering to make the Sangh a repository of all communities. The RSS has passed a resolution that appealed to all to observe social harmony and work towards ending caste discrimination and untouchability.

Many young men, particularly from among the OBCs and Scheduled Castes, have shown interest in joining the RSS because of the rise of Mr Modi. These young men were inspired that Mr Modi, an OBC and RSS pracharak, had risen to become Prime Minister.

Mr Devenderji, RSS pranth pracharak for Telangana state, said, “There is nothing new that has to be done on that count as we have been doing social inclusive service for decades.” He said, “You ‘outsiders’ do not know the kind of work we do but as far as we are concerned we have solid reach in terms of social strata. This has nothing do with the politics of the BJP.”

In Telangana state, the RSS has 2,445 active shakas, and 1,300 service branches, he said. “Our footprint is dense and covers every district. This move is expected to take BJP to the doorstep of most backward communities and garner their support.