For the last two months, BJP National Secretary Sunil V Deodhar, who is also the party in-charge of Andhra Pradesh, has been camping in Tirupati. He has taken up a house in the temple town and is leading the preparations of the party ahead of the Tirupati MP bye-poll. TNM caught up with Deodhar to find out more about the BJP’s preparations, alleged temple attacks in the state, BJP’s relation with Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party and much more. 

With the Tirupati bye-election coming up, what kind of preparations has the BJP taken up?

BJP is preparing its ground. It hasn’t been decided as yet who will be contesting the seat. Meetings with Pawan Kalyan are happening. The central committee will take the final decision. There are 47 mandals in Tirupati Lok Sabha. 47 ‘vistaraks’ who are full-time party workers have visited Tirupati and worked for 20 days here. They have come from neighbouring Parliamentary constituencies like Chittoor, Nellore, Kadapa etc. They came over and formed booth-level committees and did other ground work. We have also identified senior experienced leaders and made them in charge of each mandal. Seven Assembly segments have been bestowed to seven senior leaders of the BJP. 

The candidate will be decided only after the notification comes. BJP and JSP will sit together and decide the candidate and the plan of action. We will all sit in Delhi and take this decision.  

Do you agree that religion has taken centre-stage ahead of the Tirupati bye-polls?

I believe this is a lie. We are not the kind of people who work on the basis of religion. Our only motto is development, development and development. That said, we cannot remain silent on certain issues. 

The behaviour of the YSRCP leaders in anti-Christ because Jesus Christ never asked people to do all this. They are using religion for their political advantage and hence you cannot stop the other side from doing the same. We are only responding to them. All their actions and decisions create a doubt about a conspiracy. If their motive is to spread Christianity, then we will not allow it. According to us, this is anti-Christ as he never asked people to convert everyone.

Do you support the AP BJP state president’s demand that DGP Gautam Sawang should be sacked?

I am the national secretary of the party. I will not comment on the DGP. I will only question the Chief Minister and the government. The government should not use the police department as their party office. We have seen this happen earlier in Tripura, West Bengal etc. The temple attacks and what happened at Ramatheertham is unacceptable. Why do they always need the CBI for a probe? Is the police force in the state incompetent? 

Can’t they find out the ones responsible for the attacks. Law and order is a state issue.  If they accept that they are not capable, they should step down and make way for us. We will show them how to manage law and order.

Why do you believe that the DGP is acting as per the instructions of the government?

What are political inclinations of criminals responsible for temple attacks? It is being shown as if they all belong to the TDP and the BJP. All this is objectionable. A narrative had set in that YSRCP is anti-hindu and this was done to clear this image of the government. The YSRCP should have done a press conference, why did they make the DGP do it? The DGP is a government servant. Whichever government is in power, they will do as per the instructions given to them. If BJP-Jana Sena comes to power, then he will follow what we tell him.  

What is your opinion about Chandrababu Naidu?

Chandrababu Naidu is an imposter. Pastor Praveen, who was arrested recently, claims 699 villages were converted into Christ villages. Did these 699 villages become Christ villages in the last one-and-a-half years? To even travel to 699 villages, one year isn’t enough. Was Chandrababu Naidu asleep when this conversion was happening when he was the CM? You do politics and use Christians, Muslims and their sentiments. We don’t do that. We only expose those who are doing it. We believe in ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’.

Will we ever see the BJP joining hands with Chandrababu Nadu to defeat the YCP?

We are capable of defeating the YSRCP. In fact, if we join hands with Naidu, we will lose. Our stand is very clear. We have derived a slogan in Telugu, ‘Povali Babu-Jagan, Ravali Somu-Pawan’ (Jagan and Chandrababu should go and Pawan and Somu should come).

How would you classify these people — as a friend or an enemy?

Chandrababu Naidu: Enemy Enemy Enemy

Jagan Mohan Reddy: Enemy

Pawan Kalyan: Friend

When I say enemy, I mean a political enemy. We have no personal enmity against anyone.

There is a belief that the BJP is plotting a coup to destabilise the government. How would you react?

When we are in politics, it is the responsibility of the opposition to take the failures of the ruling party to the people. The padayatra that Jagan had taken out during Naidu’s regime, was it to destabilise Naidu’s government? He was creating political awareness. Now we are exposing him saying he is doing wrong, give us a chance. This is nothing about destabilising. Who can destabilise a government that has the biggest majority in the country?

What is the BJP’s stand in regards to Amaravati being the only capital of Andhra Pradesh?

BJP’s stand is very clear in the declaration that we have given. There is no reason to reiterate it time and again. Our stand is simple, give us an opportunity and we will make it ‘Golden Amaravati’. We will also solve all the problems of the farmers.

Do you believe that the people of Andhra Pradesh still feel for the special category status cause?

Two local parties, which wanted to hide their failures, used Special Category Status to pin the blame on a central party. We will campaign about this and expose their blunder.

READ: BJP to organize Rath Yatra in Andhra Pradesh to protest 'inaction' against temple attacks