Telangana was at the centre of the Bharatiya Janata Party's next political push on the eve of its two-day national executive in Hyderabad, as the party launched a scathing attack on the state government led by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and asserted that the countdown to its ouster from power has begun.
Briefing reporters, BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh attacked KCR, as the chief minister is generally referred, for not visiting his office during his over 3000 days of tenure for even 30 hours, spending "colourful evenings", promoting family rule and ignoring those who made sacrifices for the state's creation.
That the BJP is using the meeting as a springboard to capture power in the state is clear, with the party sending out its leaders across its 119 assemblies for two days to gather feedback and holding what it believes will be a huge public meeting to be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 3, soon after the executive meeting ends.
With Maharashtra in its kitty, the BJP has consolidated its position in the north-western region and now has set it eyes on southern states, especially Telangana.
Chugh said BJP workers from over 35,000 booths across the state will attend Modi's public meeting besides lakhs of people.
Rao will be left with only 520 days in power after Modi's meeting, Chugh claimed in a reference to the likely period before the next assembly polls by 2023 end.
BJP president JP Nadda also held a road show after his arrival in the city, which is hosting the party's national executive after 18 years.
Modi will also be attending every session of the national executive, a key BJP body having nearly 350 members from across the country, said Chugh, who is the party's in-charge for the state.
To a question about Rao's claim about the state being an example of development and his dismissal of the BJP meeting as a circus, the BJP leader said he failed to fulfil his promises to all sections of society and data will prove it.
Seeking for its agenda to strike an emotive chord with people, the BJP is also holding an exhibition, highlighting the "atrocities" of Razakars (Nizam's militia before the then Hyderabad state was liberated in 1948), Telangana liberation movement, the state's heritage and culture, the party's evolution in the state and the governance agenda of Modi.
Many founder members of the movement which led to the creation of Telangana as a separate state in 2014 have been shunned by KCR while his daughter, son and son-in-law are running the state, Chugh alleged.
This will be the first physical meeting of the BJP's key decision-making body outside the national capital after a gap of five years and the third in a southern state after coming to power in 2014.
The BJP has done well in a few recent elections in the state, winning the bypolls of Huzurabad and Dubbaka constituencies and putting up an impressive show in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in 2020 where it won 48 seats.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had won four Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.
The national executive meeting will begin on Saturday noon with the inaugural speech of Nadda and conclude with Modi's address on Sunday
During the meeting, poll-bound states will give a report on organisational activities.
