Laxman confident of BJP making inroads into Telangana

Ahead of the BJP President Amit Shah's second public meeting on October 10 at Karimnagar to galvanise the party cadres into action, party State president K Laxman shares his perspective on the BJP prospects in the electoral battle. 

Q: Where does BJP stand right now in Telangana? 
A:  We are in a comfortable position. KCR-Majlis political design will suffer a setback as BJP President Amit Shah will soon be visiting the State to lead the charge in the electoral battle. The popularity of the party is growing among all sections in the State.

Q: In 2014, BJP did not have any presence in many parts of the State. Given this, what is making you think there is a swing towards your party? 
A: In 2014, BJP has won five seats and stood second in around another 12 Assembly segments. In the new State, we had won the MLC seat from the graduates' constituency. We had given a tough fight to the ruling TRS in the MLC elections in the Teachers’ constituency from Warangal.  

Q: Congress party claims that it has given Telangana. It is making an appeal to the people to gift power to Sonia Gandhi this time since it was she who granted statehood for Telangana.
A: Congress tried to use Telangana for political gain. How come wisdom did not dawn on the Congress until nearly 1,200 youths had lost their lives in the Telangana agitation? That is why people had defeated the party 2014. The people will again show the Congress its place against in the forthcoming elections too. The Congress has blood on its hands as far as Telangana is concerned. 

Q: What is your take on the Congress-led Mahakutami (Grand Alliance) and the impact of Andhra voters in the forthcoming State Assembly elections? 
A: Maha Kutami is an alliance of the poisonous parties. They do not hesitate to indulge in divisive politics for political gain. This is the thing that they did in Karnataka. In the first place, we are all Indians, then Telangana or whatever. 

The Congress is not in a position to fight the BJP and Narendra Modi. That is why it is joining forces with others. After the Congress decided to play second fiddle to the JDS in Karnataka, even MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi had the temerity to say that he too stood a chance to become the chief minister of Telangana. If a party with eight to 10 seats could think of doing political jockeying to come to power, then it is but undermining the basic spirit of the Constitution authored by Dr B R Amebdkar.

Q: You are attacking TRS. But, can you deny the solid base that party has among the people?
A: TRS has lost its popularity in the last four- and- half years. The circumstance of 2014 was different. Telangana was a new State then, it had participated in the struggle for separate State. Thinking along these lines, people voted TRS into power, expecting that it would fulfil their aspirations. But, in four-and- half years, KCR government has failed to deliver on its promises. In addition, it paved the way for a dynastic politics, ran a dictatorial administration. This has left a permanent impact on different sections of people who have prior upheld the TRS.

Q: How can you say that there was a wide gap between people and the TRS government? 
A: Look at the contrast. Modi connects with all sections of people in the country. They include village Sarpanches, MLAs, MPs, Chief Ministers, students, farmers, women self-help groups personally as well as through Man Ki Bath, Modi App, thus, connecting with everyone physically and digitally. Contrary to this, we can see how KCR running the administration binding himself to the farmhouse, with no audience to the people. 

Q: How your elections campaign will be in the days to come vis a vis Congress, TRS and others? 
A: The Congress and TRS say they have Bahu Balis to campaign for them. But, they better first need to bother about the Kattappas in their parties. But we have no such problem. There will be two more public meetings of Amit Shah. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Aditya Nath Das, Union Minister Smriti Irani and others too will address election meetings. Above all, we have our Brahmastra (Narendra Modi), who will be addressing public meetings in the State after the announcement of the election schedule.