The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday, 15 November, in the run-up to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, appointed its National General Secretary Bhupender Yadav as the BJP’s election in-charge, a move that highlights the significance the party has attached to the local body elections.
In a statement, the BJP added that K Sudhakar, the Health Minister of Karnataka; Ashish Shelar, BJP's chief whip in Maharashtra Assembly, Gujarat BJP leader Pradip Singh Vaghela as well as Karnataka BJP MLA Sathish Reddy have been appointed co-incharge with Yadav for the GHMC polls.
With the BJP making big gains in Telangana, first in the Lok Sabha 2019 elections and then emphasised by its surprise win over the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in a recent Assembly bypolls, the party is looking at the GHMC polls to make a political statement in the state.
It is likely to aggressively target the ruling TRS and its ally the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which has a stronghold in the capital city, to emerge as a force in the GMHC.
The appointment of a national general secretary to oversee the city polls underscores the importance the saffron party has attached to the polls.
Following an unexpected win in the Dubbaka bye-election, which was necessitated due to the demise of TRS’s sitting MLA Solipeta Ramalinga Reddy, the BJP is positioning itself as the strongest alternative to the ruling TRS party.
The leadership of both the parties, as well as their social media wings, are at loggerheads over the development of Hyderabad. Meanwhile, the state election commission has released a provisional list of voters for the GHMC elections.
The election notification is expected to be issued later this week. Earlier, MIM Chief and Hyderabad MP Asadudduin Owaisi met with the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) to reportedly discuss the scene of the GHMC.
Meanwhile, the BJP National President JP Nadda also appointed Union Minister Anurag Thakur as the election in-charge for the upcoming local polls in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, while party spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain and BJP MP from Madhya Pradesh, Sanjay Bhatia, will be co-in-charge for the Jammu and Kashmir polls.
(This story was first published in The News Minute and has been republished with permission)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)