But for the lack of time for selection of candidates and campaigning with hurried announcement of the election schedule, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have performed much better and won about 100 seats and renamed Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar as promised, State party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar said on Saturday.
Speaking after holding a meeting of the GHMC election management committee in the party’s State headquarters Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Bhavan, Mr. Sanjay said that the party’s tally of 48 out of 149 seats contested indicates the massive increase in people’s support for it since the party had won only four seats in the 2016 election.
“The BJP’s surge has been possible in spite of all conspiracies of the ruling TRS to stall its (BJP’s) growth by not giving ample time even for selection of candidates, lest campaigning,” Mr. Sanjay said. He observed that the party’s win in the Dubbak by-election first and GHMC polls now, clearly indicated that people have resolved to defeat TRS as they have found an alternative in BJP.
Had the TRS been sincere in helping people in GHMC overcome the nightmare of rains and floods, the State government would have held elections after providing relief to all affected.
However, the elections were announced even as the people were just coming to terms with the situation left behind by nature’s fury compounded with human failure, Mr. Sanjay, who is also an MP from Karimnagar, said. Accusing TRS of using the flood relief amount, about ₹650 crore, for contesting the election, he said the ₹10,000 per affected family relief assistance did not reach a majority of the affected and instead landed in the hands of TRS candidates for spending in GHMC polls. Further, the ruling party had also resorted to booth capturing and got issued midnight order to count ballots with other than the cross-arrow mark (swastik) as a ploy to rig votes.
On the campaigning by several national leaders of the party as also those from other states, Mr. Sanjay said BJP takes every election with equal importance irrespective of whether it is a local body election or Parliament. He explained that the party had used social media platforms in the GHMC poll campaigning effectively by reaching two lakh people with the help of 1,000 WhatsApp groups and another 10 lakh reached with the help of Twitter and Facebook. Besides, party activists had also distributed its manifesto to 5 lakh homes directly, the BJP leader said. He reiterated that BJP was ready to cooperate with the State government in the matter of development provided the latter kept politics aside. He suggested the TRS to stop the appeasement of one section and instead focus on betterment of living standards and amenities in all wards of GHMC. He, however, stated that the BJP would continue to expose the TRS government’s misdeeds.
