BJP meets Jansena chief Pawan Kalyan in 'Bhagyanagar' to strategise for Andhra Pradesh

Emboldened by success in  Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, BJP on Wednesday met its Andhra leaders and Tollywood actor-turned-politician and Janasena founder Pawan Kalyan. Andhra BJP co-in-charge Sunil Deodhar said that a joint meeting was held in 'Bhagyanagar' to discuss various political issues pertaining to Andhra Pradesh. Deodhar said that issues discussed were immediate compensation to Nivar cyclone-affected farmers, implementation of EWS reservations, poor road conditions and mystery around Eluru disease. 

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Hyderabad Municipal Elections Corporation  

2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election results threw up a big surprise with BJP managing to prevent ruling TRS from securing a majority. While K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party emerged as single-largest party by winning 55 seats, a significant climbdown from winning 99 wards in 2016 GHMC polls. In contrast, BJP won 48 wards, which is 12 times number of divisions it bagged in previous election. 

Most importantly, highlight of this election was that BJP surpassed AIMIM's tally to become second-largest party in GHMC. AIMIM won same number of wards (44) as  2016 GHMC polls with a superior strike rate. On  or hand, electoral woes for Congress continued after its candidates secured a victory from only two wards, same as last time.

In this election, TRS contested in all 150 wards, BJP in 149, Congress in 146, TDP in 106 and AIMIM in 51. As party has secured a clear majority in GHMC, re is speculation about TRS seeking AIMIM's support. However, both TRS working president KT Rama Rao and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi refused to comment on this possibility. 

BJP in its campaign promised that Hyderabad will be 'free from Nizam culture' and will be renamed as 'Bhagyanagar', if BJP wins elections. Tall BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, national president of party JP Nadda toured city and challenged rule of TRS and AIMIM. Stressing that Bhagyanagar is t a communal name, Yogi in his campaign speech opined that it symbolizes 'development' and hailed Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for ensuring that people don't require a 'visa' to enter Hyderabad.

He said, "When BJP formed government in Uttar Pradesh, he changed Faizabad to Ayodhya. We changed Allahabad to Prayagraj. Kumbh is organized re. Prayagraj was name as per Puranas. n why can't Hyderabad become Bhagyanagar? Bhagyanagar is t a communal name. Bhagyanagar is a symbol of culture. It will be a symbol of development here." Even as BJP's victory, Yogi and or leaders declared that BJP's success is victory of 'Bhagyanagar'.

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