HYDERABAD: In what appears to be a major change in BJP’s strategy for tackling the ‘opposition front’ barely five months away from the general elections in 2019, PM

on Tuesday isolated

as the prime target and went soft on all other parties.

“Uttar Pradesh has no problems with Mayawati or Akhilesh. West Bengal has no problems with either Mamata or the Left. Congress is the only party which has to be banished from our country forever,” Modi said at a rally at Nizambad where he clearly appeared to attempt to divide the opposition by targeting only the grand old party and saying that the “others were acceptable”. He made the comment despite Mamata, Mayawati and the Left continuing to be very strong opponents.

The paradigm shift appears to be aimed at ensuring that the ‘mahagathbandhan’ of non-BJP parties does not take place. By picking on only Congress, Modi sent a clear message, “that we can all work together minus Congress”.

BJP sources said the idea behind Modi’s message is to convey across to leaders like

and Akhilesh Yadav that they should not join hands with Congress as it is a losing proposition.

While addressing local issues, too, Modi attacked

CM K Chandrasekhar Rao but, later, completely focused on Congress, saying, “CM KCR is only an apprentice of Congress and the ones who have trained him are PhDs (Congress) and if they come to power, they will do 100 times the damage TRS can do.”

Strangely, Modi made no mention of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in his entire speech, despite the fact that Naidu and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi are scheduled to jointly address two public meetings in Khammam and Hyderabad on Wednesday.