General Elections 2024: BJP to Sound Poll Bugle from Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being held in Hyderabad on July 2 and 3 is going to be a historic milestone for the party. Apart from discussing its long-term political strategies, the meeting would also chalk out a comprehensive action plan for the next two years.

In a way, the NEC meeting is expected to sound the bugle for the 2024 general elections in the country with Hyderabad as its base.
Right from its inception, the BJP has been periodically holding its national council and executive committee meetings. In the last two years, however, it could not hold such meetings on a full scale due to Coronavirus pandemic. In a way, the upcoming NEC meeting of the BJP at Hyderabad is a full-fledged meeting for the first time after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power with a massive mandate in 2014.

The NEC meeting is being held at Hyderabad after a gap of nearly two decades, the last one was in 2004 during the regime of Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the Centre. The present meeting, which is focussing on bringing the party back to power at the Centre for the third consecutive time, is focussing on conquering the states where the party is not in power and the Lok Sabha constituencies where it could never win in the past. 

The NEC meeting at Hyderabad assumes a lot of significance, as the BJP national leadership has made it clear that conquering Telangana in the next assembly elections is high on its agenda. The party has acknowledged the fact that after Karnataka, the next state it can have its footprint in the South is Telangana. So, the focus of the NEC meeting would be capturing this state.

Already, the Telangana unit of the BJP has begun penetrating into the people under the directions of the national leadership. For the first time, the BJP state leadership has undertaken a massive exercise, which has never been done in any other state, of networking all the senior leaders of the party with the local cadre in all the 119 assembly segments. Three days before the commencement of the NEC, senior party leaders, including Union ministers, MPs, former chief ministers and other important leaders have been sent to each of the 119 assembly constituencies to study the party prospects at the grassroots level.

They would also understand how far the schemes and programmes of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre are being implemented at the grassroots level and the magnitude of the people’s resentment against the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government, besides studying the organisational issues of the BJP and steps to be taken by the party to win the seat in that constituency.

The resounding victory of the BJP in the by-elections to Dubbak and Huzurabad assembly seats and the impressive show in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections have given a new hope to the party that it is no difficult task to wrest victory from the TRS in the next elections.

The BJP national leadership has acknowledged this fact and through the NEC meeting and the following public meeting at Secunderabad Parade Grounds, it is planning to send a strong message to the cadre as well as the people of the state that it is a historic necessity to bring the BJP to power in Telangana.

The people of Telangana have realised that if they vote for the Congress, its MLAs would get sold out to the TRS at a later stage. So, they have decided that the BJP is the only alternative to the TRS. The huge response to the BJP programmes is an indication of the mood of the people.

In a way, the BJP is gearing up to face the assembly elections in Telangana, whenever they are held. The party has already chalked out action plans to win the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh this year and Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh next year. The NEC would also discuss the strategies to win the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, where elections are likely to be held before 2024 general elections.

The NEC would also provide a new direction to the BJP cadre to help them rise to the occasion in developing India on all fronts in the next 25 years, so that it would emerge as a super power by 2047 when the country celebrates 100 years of Independence.

At present, there is no party which can challenge the supremacy of BJP at the national level. Though regional parties are stronger in some states, they have their own limitations. Gradually, people are rejecting family-based parties in the state, as was evident from the latest by-elections to two Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. The people are also disgusted with unholy alliances between various parties for their political exigencies, as was witnessed in Maharashtra.

In the last eight years, the BJP leadership and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre have taken several measures for social justice, economic development and country’s sovereignty and security. The way it has selected a tribal woman as the candidate for Presidential elections shows its commitment to the empowerment of 12 crore Adivasis.

During the Coronavirus pandemic which had crippled the economies of several countries, including the developed nations, India made a remarkable recovery in a short span of time and showed a new direction to the rest of the world with speedy vaccination drive. Similarly, the latest scheme – Agnipath, introduced by the Modi government, would go a long way in strengthening the military system.

India also made rapid strides in various sectors like industries, start-ups, rural development and agriculture sectors under the dynamic rule of Narendra Modi. Even during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war crisis, India displayed its independent foreign policy to protect our interests.
The BJP’s agenda is people’s welfare and country’s development. It will strive for a qualitative change in the national policy, which has no scope for dynastic rule and corruption. Every decision of the BJP is aimed at building India into a great nation and enlightens every citizen of the country to strive for nation building.

                                 - Bandi Sanjay Kumar, MP and President, Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana