Even as Bharatiya Janata Party is pinning hopes on three to four Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, a senior leader said the party committed a “tactical blunder” by entering into an alliance with Telugu Desam in the region.
BJP functionaries expressed confidence that senior party leader Bandaru Dattatreya would romp home in Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency. They are hopeful that BJP nominees would do well in Mahabubnagar, Nizamabad and Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituencies and a dozen Assembly seats, including Amberpet in city from where Telangana BJP president G. Kishan Reddy is seeking re-election.
They said Musheerabad, Goshamahal, Malkajgiri, Khairatabad, Nizamabad urban, Yella Reddy, Karimnagar, Vemulawada, Yella Reddy, Mahabubnagar and Nagarkurnool Assembly seats were the other places where the party was expected to put up a sterling performance. However, the situation would have been totally different and Congress would have been wiped out had the BJP tied up with TRS instead of TDP, said a senior party leader.
The leader, who did not wish to be identified, said most of the seats allotted to BJP were TRS strongholds. Besides, TDP president N. Chandrabau Naidu did not concentrate much on Telangana and also did not spend enough.
He said by aligning with TDP, the party virtually yielded ground to TRS in claiming to be the sole champion of Telangana. “We depended only on Mr. Narendra Modi’s glamour and left Telangana factor to TRS and Congress,” he added. He said that a BJP-TRS alliance would have got at least 14 Lok Sabha seats as the combination of Mr. Modi’s glamour and Telangana issue would have resulted in huge success.
Another BJP leader said BJP-TDP alliance simply did not work. He said the speeches of Mr. Modi during his tour of Telangana when he criticised the manner of bifurcation of the State also did not go well with the people in the region. This aspect was exploited to the hilt by TRS leader K. Chandrasekhar Rao subsequently.
