Hyderabad:
Enthused by its victory in the Dubbaka assembly by-election in Telangana last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is shifting gears for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, which could be announced anytime soon.
In the Dubbaka polls, the BJP defeated the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) by 1,079 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.
The BJP has now asked its national general secretary Bhupender Yadav, who recently steered the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to victory in Bihar, to work on the electoral and political strategy for the Hyderabad polls.
Mr Yadav, a Rajya Sabha member, is the BJP’s in-charge of Bihar affairs. It is under his supervision that the party-led NDA recorded a convincing in the Bihar Assembly election last week. The BJP itself won 72 seats to emerge as the senior member in its alliance with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United, which managed only 42.
It has also appointed a team of leaders to monitor the GHMC elections, including Karnataka health minister, Maharashtra BJP leader Ashish Shelar, Gujarat leader Pradeep Singh Waghela, and Karnataka Assembly member Satish Reddy.
A 23-member election management team of local leaders has also been announced.
The TRS will feel the heat of the aggressive BJP strategy. Already the national party has been attacking the state’s K Chandrashekhar Rao government, alleging irregularities in the distribution of flood compensation.
Despite 2020 being a COVID-19 pandemic year during which revenue collections have been low, the TRS government has announced 50 per cent relief in property tax under GHMC for those paying up to Rs 15,000.
