Mass mobilisation has been the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strong point that has helped it win the electorate’s confidence in many states, and Telangana BJP too is making sure that it can reach the maximum number of voters. After the state unit chief, Bandi Sanjay Kumar, was praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his Praja Sangrama Yatra last year, the party has been aggressively holding street corner meetings as part of the ‘Praja Gosa, BJP Bharosa’ programme.
In a recent meeting, Sanjay Kumar claimed that the party had exceeded the targeted number of street corner meetings. While the party leadership aimed to hold 11,000 such meetings across the state, 11,123 had been carried out. Sources had claimed that in the initial days, the meetings had failed to gain traction and union home minister Amit Shah had expressed concern over the numbers in a conversation with state core committee members. In fact, the meetings, which were scheduled to end by February 25, were extended by three days because the party could not reach the target.
However, Sanjay Kumar said that the party was able to create a record by surpassing the goal. The campaign was held under the guidance of state party affairs incharges Tarun Chugh and Sunil Bansal.
Data shows that barring Peddapalli, the meetings were held at Shakti Kendras of the remaining 118 assembly constituencies. The highest number of meetings were held in Medchal (165), while the lowest were in Dubbak (11). Another area which saw a low number of meetings (16) is Bahadurpura in Hyderabad, which is an AIMIM stronghold. Areas like Quthbullapur (138), Maheshwaram (123) and Rajendranagar (115) scored well in the meeting tally.
Speaking to News18, BJP state vice president NVSS Prabhakar said, “The corner meetings were meant to corner the government. It is to apprise the people of the policies and programmes of the central government. From Mamata Banerjee to Stalin, all opposition CMs have implemented central schemes in their states. Telangana is the only state that does not allow the Centre to implement its own programmes. Schemes like Ayushman Bharat and EWS are not being implemented here. That is why we want people to think about the benefits of a ‘double engine sarkar’. With BJP, the people can avail the schemes available at both state and central levels. In our corner meetings, we give the common man a chance to speak. The local booth president will be on the dais. The public can come here and talk about their grievances about civic amenities, welfare measures etc. The BJP highlights the issues and then fights actively to find a solution.”
Speaking at a Booth Swasaktheekaran Abhiyan workshop at the state BJP office recently, Sanjay said organisationally the party was very strong compared to the Congress, the state’s ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and even the Telugu Desam party, which had no village-level and mandal-level committees. “Political parties which have no organisational strength cannot sustain for long. The BJP is in power in 18 states only because it has a strong organisational network. The party was able to come to power at the Centre twice due to its strength at the grassroots level, and is all set for a hattrick in 2024,” he said.
In Telangana, too, the party has been building up its organisational strength, as the people have made up their mind to bring it to power in the next elections, said Sanjay. “We have completed 80 per cent of the 34,000-odd polling booth committees so far,” he said.
During the Praja Sangrama Yatra last year, the state BJP chief interacted with people throughout the heartland of Telangana and covered six Lok Sabha constituencies, 11 assembly constituencies, and 18 districts within a span of 116 days. Sanjay started the yatra in August 2021, claiming it was to strengthen the fight against corruption and misgovernance of the BRS government.
Speaking about the BJP’s mass contact programmes in Telangana, K Krishna Sagar Rao, chief spokesperson for the party, said, “The BJP wishes to further strengthen its base across the state. All the mass contact programmes are actually aimed at accomplishing that purpose. Street corner meetings, booth level interactions, and Shakti Kendra meetings are aimed at activating karyakartas of the party and engaging with the voters across all assembly constituencies.”
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