The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana unit, which has already declared that it will go it alone with no alliance for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the State, has announced that its candidates will be declared after the party parliamentary board meeting in Delhi on March 15.
Party leaders led by State unit chief K. Laxman held discussions with national president Amit Shah during his recent visit where it was decided that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would participate in at least four public meetings while Mr. Shah himself would take part in six. Senior leaders and ministers, including Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, were expected to take part in the election campaign and the State Core Committee would meet later this week to finalise the action plan, said Mr. Laxman.
Addressing a press conference, along with vice-president S. Malla Reddy, on Tuesday, he said the BJP was confident of winning more than 300 seats in the Lok Sabha election, ensuring that Mr. Modi got a second term as PM because “people of this country believe in his development and welfare agenda.”
Regional parties
Joining issue with TRS leader K.T. Rama Rao on claiming to be winning 16 seats and hence power to control the next government at the Centre, the BJP leader wanted to know what the TRS had done with 16 MPs since 2014 and said TS was formed with the support of his party when TRS had just two seats.
“It is false to state that only regional parties can take care of States’ interests. We are in power in 16 States only because we could gauge the aspirations of local people. TRS cannot form government with 16 seats because it will be the NDA Government at the Centre. The so-called third front or regional front floated by KCR has been a damp squib,” he said.
Voting the TRS or the Congress would be a ‘wasted opportunity’ and TS people should decide whether to elect MPs who would be serving a ‘family’ or vote for BJP candidates to help them become Union Ministers at the Centre, the BJP State president said.
