After Union home minister Amit Shah, none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave complete clarity on the possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance partners in the next elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Modi, who held a breakfast meeting with the MPs of southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala at his residence on Thursday morning, asked them to take up extensive campaign of the Central government’s schemes and programmes in their respective states.
According to reports from New Delhi, Modi briefly discussed the strategies to be adopted by the party in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
He told them clearly that the BJP should replace the Congress in Telangana and Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh as the main opposition parties.
“The Congress is fast losing its ground in Telangana and the TDP has almost disappeared in Andhra Pradesh. So, the BJP should occupy their places and make efforts to come to power in the next elections,” Modi told the MPs of two Telugu states.
Apparently, the Prime Minister indicated that the BJP should grow on its own in these states without looking for any alliances.
By saying that the TDP has lost its hold in Andhra Pradesh, he indirectly ruled out the possibility of the BJP entering into any sort of understanding with the TDP, sources said.
Modi assured the party leaders that the Centre would extend all possible help to the state BJP to grow as independent force at all levels – right from village to the state-level.
A couple of days ago, a 13-member core committee of the BJP held a meeting at the residence of Union minister of state for external affairs and BJP Andhra affairs in-charge V Muralidharan in New Delhi and decided to hold a massive public meeting at Vijayawada on December 28.
The party has decided to go all out against the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh, expose its failures, mishandling of the state finances, alleged anarchy by the ruling YSR Congress party and blatant attacks on the political rivals.
The core committee decided to invite a big national BJP leader – Rajnath Singh, or Nitin Gadkari, or Amit Shah or J P Nadda – for the public meeting, which would galvanise the cadres and bring seriousness to the party’s action plan.
“A sub-committee would be appointed to make arrangements for the public meeting on December 28 and take necessary permission from the authorities,” the party leader said.