Challenges galore for new T-BJP mascot

The exit of M Venkaiah Naidu has left a vacuum in Telangana unit of BJP. It will now be upon the national General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao, who is being seen as the front runner to fill the void left by Venkaiah Naidu to handle the party affairs in the state and ensure that it improves its position by leaps and bounds by 2019 elections.

Being a Union Minister, Naidu had to perform a balancing act but with no such responsibilities, Rao is expected to aggressively push forward the party agenda, including boosting the morale of the cadre.

Party insiders say that they have already got enough signals at the recent informal meetings as well as during the State Executive that was held in Warangal that supporting the ruling party in the state on certain issues or taking their support in some other issues does not make them friends. Governance should not be mixed with politics.

As far as governance is concerned it is ‘sab ke saath sab ka vikas’ but when it comes to electoral politics, the party gains should assume greater significance.

The central leadership of the party has made it amply clear to the State leaders to come out of their slumber and activate the party by August end. With fast-changing political equations in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the central leadership is of the opinion that they can make their presence felt by 2019.

For that the state unit needs to work with the target that Telangana should be elevated to ‘A’ category state from the present ‘B’ category. That is from being a state where it has ample scope to rise to a state where the party would be ruling. Though it is an uphill task at this point in time, unless the bar is raised suitably, the party cannot move forward. With this goal before the new in-charges, many changes are likely to be witnessed in the days to come.

The party national president would be directly monitoring the growth of the party in the state and leaders like Muralidhar Rao will play a very important role in making the party gallop towards achieving its objective.After the recent Warangal meeting TBJP chief Dr K Laxman announced that over 75,000 active members would launch agitation programmes over several issues concerning the people.

The state unit has so far has not been very vociferous on the issue of 12 percent reservations for Muslims. But that would be one of the important talking points for the party. Similarly, it would give a new job chart and fix responsibilities to all the important leaders.

The central leadership wants the state party leaders to bury their differences and work together, lest the political opponents take advantage of the situation. On many occasions, the differences between the state president and the floor leader came to the fore. At one stage the party national president Amit Shah himself had to intervene, mend fences and resolve the issue amicably.

On that count- the leader who will be entrusted the Telangana affairs will have his task cut out. He has to first and foremost ring in coordination between all the sections and charge the leaders to go all out to strengthen it politically.
Muralidhar Rao, being an important member in Team Amit Shah, will play a bigger role in the days to come.