Published 09:55 IST, December 10th 2020
BJP meets Jansena chief Pawan Kalyan in 'Bhagyanagar' to strategise for Andhra Pradesh
Emboldened by the success in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls, the BJP on Wednesday met its Andhra leaders & called it 'Bhagyanagar meeting'
Emboldened by the success in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, the 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 the issues discussed were immediate compensation to Nivar cyclone-affected farmers, implementation of EWS reservations, poor road conditions and mystery around Eluru disease.
Hyderabad Municipal Elections Corporation
The 2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election results threw up a big surprise with BJP managing to prevent the ruling TRS from securing a majority. While the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led party emerged as the single-largest party by winning 55 seats, a significant climbdown from winning 99 wards in the 2016 GHMC polls. In contrast, BJP won 48 wards, which is 12 times the number of divisions it bagged in the previous election.
Most importantly, the highlight of this election was that BJP surpassed AIMIM's tally to become the second-largest party in the GHMC. AIMIM won the same number of wards (44) as the 2016 GHMC polls with a superior strike rate. On the other hand, the electoral woes for Congress continued after its candidates secured a victory from only two wards, the 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 no party has secured a clear majority in the GHMC, there 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 the elections. Tall BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, national president of the party JP Nadda toured the city and challenged the rule of TRS and AIMIM. Stressing that Bhagyanagar is not 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 the government in Uttar Pradesh, he changed Faizabad to Ayodhya. We changed Allahabad to Prayagraj. Kumbh is organized there. Prayagraj was the name as per the Puranas. Then why can't Hyderabad become Bhagyanagar? Bhagyanagar is not a communal name. Bhagyanagar is a symbol of culture. It will be a symbol of the development here." Even as BJP's victory, Yogi and other leaders declared that BJP's success is the victory of 'Bhagyanagar'.
Updated 09:55 IST, December 10th 2020