BJP tirade against BRS seems to sound hollow

Political heat is slowly picking up in Telangana. The Congress party feels that the loss of BJP would be its gain and that it would be able to win around 25 to 30 seats more.

The BJP which had given an impression that it was emerging a strong opposition to the BRS suddenly left the battlefield. Though Union Home Minister Amit Shah who addressed the Khammam meeting on Sunday vows they will never join hands with KCR since he is crooning “Ilu Ilu” with AIMIM party, and that the steering of the car (BRS symbol) is in the hands of the Majlis party, it is difficult for the people to go by his assertions. While the Congress is confident of getting around 25 to 30 seats, the BJP is not able to make any such claims. That being the ground situation, it is interesting to hear Shah claim that the BJP will form the government with full majority.

The swipe at AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge over his allegations – that both BJP and BRS are two sides of the same coin, which is why KCR has stopped criticising PM as well as BJP, and that BJP is soft pedalling the liquor scam probe in which KCR’s daughter Kavitha was questioned by ED – appears to be a half-hearted one. Shah also deplored that Kharge was speaking untruth at this ripe age.

But the fact is that Kharge had merely spelt out what is on the minds of the people of Telangana, and they believe that BJP has some kind of understanding with the BRS, in the wake of its change of route map, not bothering about making further inroads into the south. There is also a growing feeling that BJP is going the Congress way with its leaders adopting Congress-style democracy in the party and washing their dirty linen in public. What’s more? People also feel the BJP is going soft on KCR because it wants the help of pink party to win some Lok Sabha seats including the Secunderabad Lok Sabha seat. BJP leaders may vehemently deny this, but this is what the general public feels.

This being the perception of the people, it is very difficult for the saffron party to regain the ground it had lost ever since the internal bickering of the party came to the fore. The Khammam meeting also did not specify specifics of its action plan for farmers, women, youth and the poor.

The Khammam public meeting was named as ‘Rytu Gosa – BJP Bharosa’. But if one analyses the speech of Amit Shah, neither there was any Bharosa (assurance) nor did he explain what was Rytu Gosa (woes of farmers). Maybe this was just a warming session for the saffron party. Maybe the meeting which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address soon in Telangana would contain some announcements or promises. Unless the BJP announces its list of candidates, it is difficult to say whether it is really against the BRS or it is just a sort of shadow boxing between the two parties.