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A BJP-mukt South India on December 3?

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Today's Edition

New Delhi, 28 November 2023

Dr Satish Misra

Assembly elections results of five states on December 3 are going to be a turning point in the country’s political history because popular mandate will indicate the direction in which the political wind is blowing.

While results of the three Hindi-speaking states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the cow belt and in the north eastern state of Mizoram would indicate whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the saffron party continue to remain the determining choice of the electorate, the outcome in the southern state of Telangana would show if the BJP is politically relevant in South India or not? Or in saffron terminology, the country is going to have BJP-mukt South India?

The BJP has been working hard for several decades to find a firm foothold in four southern states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and now in five states ever since Talangana came into existence in 2014. Karnatka is the only state where it came to form the government first in 2007 and thereafter has been in power several times but it was defeated in the last assembly elections early this year by the Congress.

Now much is at stake for the BJP and its mascot Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who revels in his role of a political campaigner then as an executive head of a country. He is leaving no stone unturned to boost the morale of the BJP so that the party does not end in shameful defeat. The BJP’s electoral machinery is using all fair and foul means to outwit its opponents particularly the Congress to emerge a runner up and avoid the tag of an also ran.

Apart from the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, UP and Assam chief ministers Yogi Aditynath and Himanta Biswa Sarma, several union ministers and BJP chief J P Nadda have campaigned in the state extensively. Yogi Adityanath was sent to constituencies where there is a substantial Muslim population and he went on to promise that if the BJP comes to power cities like Hyderabad and Mehboobnagar

But unfortunately all electoral pundits, ground reports and experts are predicting that the saffron party is going to end as a poor third.

At present, the BJP has four Lok Sabha MPs from the southern state and has four MLAs in the outgoing assembly. In the beginning of 2023, the BJP was very hopeful of replacing the K Chandrashekhar Rao government of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party that has been ruling the state for last 10 years.

Journey of Bharad Jodo Yatra of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi through Telangana revived the Congress in the state boosting the political fortunes of the party that was lying moribund after its defeat in the last assembly election and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has 7 MLAs in the outgoing assembly and stands at par with the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

Within a period of 11 months, the Congress has emerged as a potential winner of the ongoing electoral exercise in the state replacing BSR that had won 99 seats in the 119 member assembly in 2018.

The BJP is doing everything possible, using every overt and covert means, to register a respectable performance in the present electoral battle in the state with the Prime Minister making last ditch effort by staying in the state for three days to campaign for the party.

He is going to address six election meetings and hold a road show in Hyderabad on November 27. He will stay overnight at Raj Bhavan.

The PM arrived by a special flight at the Begumpet airport today and immediately left for Kamareddy where he addressed a public meeting. Fact that needs to be noted here is that though Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy are the principal contestants at Kamareddy and the BJP is not even in contention, Modi’s decision to hold a public rally here gives weightage to opposition Congress’s charge that the BJP and BRS are hand in gloves to defeat the Congress.

Modi’s second meeting today was at Maheshwaram on the city outskirts.

On November 26, Modi will travel to Toopran for an election meeting and then speak at a meeting in Nirmal.

On November 27, Monday, Modi is scheduled to address an election meeting between 12 noon and 12.40 pm in Mahbubabad and from 2 pm to 2.40 pm in the Karimnagar Assembly constituency where party candidate Bandi Sanjay Kumar is taking on minister Gangula Kamalakar.

He will hold a road show in Hyderabad in the evening before leaving for Delhi.

Also on Saturday, the Prime Minister will visit Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and review the ongoing work at its manufacturing facility, officials said. Among others, the manufactures Tejas jets in which may countries have expressed an interest.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to arrive in Tirupati on Sunday and leave for Hyderabad on November 27. He will stay overnight at Tirumala and offer prayers at the Sri Venkateswara temple there then proceed to Hyderabad.

Even before the announcement of elections for the state, Modi had visited the state many times. On October 1, he had visited the state and had announced projects worth Rs 13500 cores to give boost to the BJP’s poll prospects. In his speech, the Prime Minister had attacked Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao.

Apart from the Prime Minister’s personal efforts to make his party win in the southern state, BJP’s top leadership including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and saffron party’s chief J P Nadda too have made many visits to the state.

The BJP had been defeated in Karnataka by the Congress convincingly in May this year and it has almost no presence in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The BJP has been crying hoarse since 2013 that it will make India Congress mukt (Free of Congress, but the irony of the political fate that it is turning into one.

From all accounts and ground reports, it seems that the BJP’s political fortunes are down with prospects of south India becoming BJP-mukt when election results are announced on December

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