BJP working hard to emerge as first alternative to TRS in Telangana

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) counts Telangana as a sunrise state, suffused with the growth potential that West Bengal and Odisha hold. The difference is while the BJP had to construct its political architecture from scratch in the eastern states, history and legacy were on its side in Telangana, although the political bequest did not necessarily yield votes.

General Secretary and Telangana leader P Muralidhar Rao stressed this point and said: “This is not a state where we need revival. In the Lok Sabha elections held after the Ayodhya movement and at the crest of Atalji’s (Atal Bihari Vajpayee) popularity, we polled 26 per cent votes in Telangana (then it was part of Andhra Pradesh). Because of an aggressive cadre, our mobilisation capacity was often disproportionate to the votes secured.” 

The trend broke twice in the parliamentary polls: In 1999, the BJP won seven seats in Andhra, of which five were in the Telangana region, and in 2019, it picked up four of the fledgeling state’s 17 seats, leaving the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) with 9, the Congress with three and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) with one. 

Rao — who was an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad or ABVP (the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) at the Kakatiya and Osmania Universities — adduced three reasons for the BJP’s presence and base, chief among them being its ability to ideologically and socially counter the sectarian AIMIM in Hyderabad, the influence wielded by the ABVP and the RSS’s trade union front, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), and the propensity of the Congress and later the TRS to “coopt the AIMIM brand of politics and gain a Muslim vote bank”. 

“Hyderabad was prone to communal riots, which led to a two-way struggle between the AIMIM and the BJP and spawned for us iconic leaders like ‘Tiger’ A Narendra and ‘Golconda Lion’ B Bal Reddy (both passed away). The ABVP fought against the domination of the Maoists on campuses, while the BMS was the spearhead of workers’ struggles at Allwyn, BHEL and the Vishakhapatnam port. Yesterday’s ABVP is today’s BJP,” stated Rao.

Claiming that the political ambience was “congenial” to the BJP after the “unexpected” Lok Sabha accrual, Telangana Spokesperson K Krishnasagar Rao said: “We have to occupy the principal Opposition space before the next Assembly election and to become one, we have to be an effective number two.” 

Rao admitted after a “happy and comfortable relationship with the TRS” in the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’s) earlier tenure because of “a political necessity in the Rajya Sabha (where the NDA was short of numbers)", the BJP was on the front foot, crafting a campaign against the K Chandrashekar Rao government, underpinned on the slogan that Telangana was run by a “stay home chief minister”. “He doesn’t visit the secretariat. There’s a financial meltdown, funds have dried up and the welfare funds of Rs 1.5 trillion have been channelled into KCR’s pet irrigation projects, putting Telangana in a debt trap. After the Lok Sabha polls, there has been a revolt in the TRS, because of which he was compelled to reconstitute the Cabinet and induct dissidents,” said Rao. He attributed the CM’s “vulnerability” to a “sense of confidence and fearlessness” in people, emanating from the BJP’s emergence as an “alternative”. 

T Rajeshwar Rao, Telangana BJP vice-president, was of the view that had the BJP not tied up with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) periodically, “we would have been number one here”. “The reason is the BJP has a strong presence in the neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha (it bordered the united Andhra Pradesh). The districts near these states have about 30 (of the 119) Assembly seats, so that’s encouraging for us. Hyderabad has 24 Assembly segments and we are the AIMIM’s main opposition,” claimed Rao. The BJP’s current membership drive posted 1.5 million new members. And, with this, the state currently has 3.6 million BJP members. 

The cross-party movement towards the BJP, visible in other states, has begun in Hyderabad. Among the recent migrants were D K Aruna (Congress MLA), P Sudhakar Reddy (a former legislative council member of the Congress),  G Vivek (TRS) and D Aravind, whose father, D Srinivas, is a TRS MP.

“The large-scale migration is a sign that the old Left and the old Congress that fought Nizam rule have vanished, and the BJP has taken their place,” said Muralidhar Rao.

What of leadership projection? While Krishnasagar and Rajeshwar Rao maintained the BJP did not have a “tradition of positioning a CM candidate”, Rajeshwar Rao added, “If we have a viable leader it will be good.”

Right now, the BJP's Telangana unit insiders have hedged their bets on G Kishan Reddy, junior home minister at the Centre. Apart from being a former legislator and state party president, Reddy, 55, was elected from Secunderabad in 2019. A source said: “In the complex caste mosaic, he represents the Reddy community, which is acceptable to all.” Of Telangana’s 17 MPs, eight are Reddys, underscoring the community’s political centrality.

Going back in history for its future

The erstwhile Hyderabad state—or Hyderabad Deccan—comprised Telangana, the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, and the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. It was founded by the Nizam in 1724.

During British rule, it became the wealthiest princely state, with its revenues averaging Rs 4.17 crore. 

Towards the end of colonial rule, the Nizam dynasty declared itself an independent monarchy under Asaf Jah V’s leadership. But, India annexed the Hyderabad state in 1948, after which the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, signed an instrument of accession.

The Nizam’s “legacy” survives tangentially through the AIMIM, headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. The BJP’s political argument is that the AIMIM was founded by Qasim Rizvi, who headed the Razakars. The Razakars were raised as a private militia by the Nizam to fight the Indian army.

The BJP’s line is that the AIMIM is synonymous with the Nizam and the Razakars. 

Although the Congress under Jawaharlal Nehru fought the monarchy the country over, in due course,  the party adopted the AIMIM “genre” of politics to win over the Muslims as did the Communist Party of India. 

The TRS, the BJP alleged, went the way of the Congress and the Left by refusing to allow the celebration of September 17 as “Accession Day” in Telangana. The BJP has converted the “anti-Nizam” feelings into “progress” and “cultural majoritarianism” to foster its politics.