With the 2014 elections fast approaching, the BJP district unit is trying to win the confidence of voters in its ‘ability’ to deliver good governance and all-round development, which helped it in upsetting the applecart of Congress party in all the north Indian States that went to polls recently, except Delhi where it had to play second fiddle to the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Riding on that wave of success which the party tasted after a long time, its leaders of Krishna district and Vijayawada city units are making a concerted effort to win a seat or two by striking a chord with the people expecting them to vote for the Narendra Modi, clean governance and development factors that gave the party a new-found enthusiasm in the run-up to elections.
The party has been actively reaching out to the people in different ways for the last few weeks as part of its endeavour to make its mark in this politically sensitive district. The party had never won even a single seat in the district, the lone exception being Kota Srinivasa Rao who defeated Ilapuram Venkaiah of Indian National Congress (INC) in Vijayawada East constituency in 1999 with his party’s alliance with TDP working to his advantage.
Thirteen years later, the BJP hopes to stage a comeback and it has a good reason to be charged up. Party leaders have already unleashed a publicity blitzkrieg across the district and took out a padayatra covering 140 kilometres in the city.
The party’s frontal organizations, mainly Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) and Mazdoor Morcha are extensively campaigning and the BJYM is also organising a cricket tournament soon as part of its ‘youth-connect’ programme on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary and the party membership drive is going on a full swing.
Coming to selection of candidates, the party has got a sizable number of aspirants and it is hopeful that its ranks will swell in the days ahead. BJP is going to contest all the three Assembly constituencies in Vijayawada city --East, West and Central -- and also for Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat. Arrangements for opening ten election offices in the city are under way, according to party’s city president D. Umamaheswara Raju.
