To infuse enthusiasm and prepare the cadre for the upcoming Assembly elections in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public meeting to be organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Mahabubnagar on October 1.
The meeting will be held at 12 noon at the ITI ground at Bhootpur in Mahabubnagar and the party wants to ensure that it sends the rights signals to the party cadre. ‘Only the Prime Minister can infuse the enthusiasm that party is now looking for after the party image took a beating due to some internal issues,” a senior leader agreed.
As rumours of some internal understanding between the BJP and the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) reached ground-level and people started believing it to be true, the BJP planned this public meeting much earlier than expected. The election notification will not come out before October 10, but the party can’t wait that long to galvanise the cadre.
It is also rumoured that several senior leaders are looking at Congress yet again with its graph picking up over the last few months, the party is desperate to stem such a tide. It fears that once senior leaders start leaving the party it would demoralise the cadre further.
A senior leader said that the PM will not only use his image to seek support for the party in Telangana but also target the BRS government and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s policies and schemes. “The allegations of corruption against KCR’s government will be crucial and the BJP has to take this to the people seriously if it wants to send some seriousness into its poll campaign,” a leader who left the party recently alleging that the BJP was not serious about taking on the BRS government.
This will be the first meeting of Mr. Modi in Telangana after the women reservation Bill was passed by Parliament and the PM will also be focusing on wooing the women voters. The party plans to build its image among first-time women voters as they would matter for another four decades with many political opportunities opening for them.
Union Tourism Minister and State BJP president G. Kishan Reddy and other party leaders would have to work hard to make the meeting successful in the backdrop of internal reports that Mr. Amit Shah’s meeting in Hyderabad on September 17 did not evoke much response with poor mobilisation of crowds. On the same day, Congress held a massive meeting with over three lakh people where Sonia Gandhi announced the six guarantees for Telangana.
