Will KCR meet Uddhav's fate?

Hyderabad: A few BJP leaders, who arrived in the city for the two-day national executive meet, were quick to draw a parallel between Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to assert that the state chief minister will meet the fate of the Maharashtra leader.

The NE meeting assumes importance as it is taking place in the immediate aftermath of the toppling of the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government and the swearing-in of the dispensation led by the BJP and Shiv Sena rebels has made the comparison obvious.

Besides, the TRS was seen as a friendly party to the BJP before it turned against the saffron party gradually after the Modi government came to power for a second term in 2019.

BJP leaders blamed Rao's "frustration and anger" with the BJP after he sensed the potential for its rise in the state.

After its surprise win in four Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, where its only three candidates had won in the assembly polls held months before the 2019 parliamentary election, the BJP went into overdrive to fill the opposition space as the Congress weakened, winning two crucial assembly bypolls and putting up an impressive show in the Hyderabad municipal polls.

BJP leaders said the party's rise has alarmed the TRS. The BJP's decision to choose Hyderabad for the meet is being seen as the clearest signal from the party that the state is the top priority in its agenda for expansion in territories where it remains relatively weak.

Since coming to power at the Centre in 2014, this is only the fourth time the party is holding its key national meet outside Delhi. It had held earlier meets in Odisha in 2017, Kerala in 2016 and Bengaluru in 2015. All these states were chosen by the BJP for boosting its presence there.