Seemingly in line with its ‘Mission South’ agenda, the Bharatiya Janata Party is gearing up to host its national executive meeting this year in Hyderabad, as many as 18 years after the mega meet was last organised in the city in 2004, during the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Through the meeting, scheduled to take place on July 2 and 3, the party hopes to make the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other cabinet leaders a catalyst in the process of winning the Telangana elections. The BJP also hopes the event will have a positive impact on the neighbouring state of Karnataka, where the party is in power, as well as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where it has been struggling to make its presence felt.
The national executive meeting will be held at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre at Madhapur, with an estimated presence of up to 300 national leaders. This includes BJP national committee members, chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of 18 BJP-governed states, presidents of all party state units, coordinators and special invitees. A total of six main committees — finance, reception, accommodation, arrangements, décor, and media and culture — have been formed to ensure that all arrangements are in place. Up to 34 sub-committees will function under these six groups.
The finance committee will look into the raising of funds and the expenditure. Telangana BJP President Bandi Sanjay has asked the karyakartas (party workers) to contribute to the collection drive, and to use digital payment methods to ensure transparency and accountability. The party is presently collecting donations from 50,000-odd zonal, district and state level leaders.
The reception committee will look into the registration of participants, computer-related works and arrangements for the reception of national leaders and other guests, besides administration works. The accommodation committee will exclusively be concerned with the arrangements for the accommodation of BJP leaders and their staff, as well as the media personnel travelling to Hyderabad to cover the national executive meeting.
The Telangana unit of the BJP has also decided to voluntarily offer their personal SUV vehicles for the pickup, transport and drop of the national leaders. “We have already made a list of 250 vehicles, mostly SUVs, which will be at the service of BJP leaders coming to Hyderabad. All these vehicles have been voluntarily offered by the leaders and karyakartas of the Telangana unit. Each vehicle will have one karyakarta besides the driver to escort the leaders,” a source said.
On July 3, after the conclusion of the national executive meeting, PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP National President JP Nadda are expected to address a public meeting at the Parade Ground, in the heart of the city. According to BJP leaders, it is probably for the first time that the party is organising a public meeting during a national executive conference. The decision seems to be part of the BJP’s bid to mobilise the state’s masses, by capitalising on the Prime Minister’s presence in Hyderabad.
Leaders of the Telangana unit say efforts are on to ensure an ambitious target of 10 lakh people at the public meeting. The BJP chief, who has specifically called for the information regarding the meeting to be shared with every person across the state, has said that the party is expecting at least 10,000 people from each constituency. Up to 50 lakh invitations are also being printed for the same. TNM has learnt that each constituency has been allotted a leader for the mobilisation of people. “The costs incurred as part of the endeavour will be borne by the respective candidates wishing to contest from the constituencies,” revealed a senior leader.
Bandi Sanjay has stated that the public meeting would be held in an unprecedented manner, despite the obstacles being created by the state’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi government. The BJP’s current plan is to gather together all the beneficiaries of various Union government schemes. Calling the meeting a “grand opportunity for every BJP worker to brace for the future”, Bandi Sanjay asserted that the presence of top BJP leaders in the state will boost the morale of the party cadre in Telangana.
BJP sources allege that the TRS government has been trying to create obstacles ahead of the meeting, by not issuing several permissions citing law and order issues. Hence, the BJP has decided to organise the public meeting at the Parade Ground, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Defence and not of the state. “We had initially planned to organise a number of events at the Tank Bund on the International Day of Yoga. Around 40 boats were also arranged, as we wanted to get people to do yoga on boats in the Hussain Sagar Lake. But the state government refused to give permission, and the event had to be shifted to the Parade Ground at the last minute. So, we decided that the public meeting would also be held at the Parade Ground,” revealed a BJP leader.
The Telangana unit of the BJP will also set up an exhibition at the venue of the meeting. The exhibition will be themed around Telangana and is expected to give visitors a glimpse into the BJP’s history in the state. “All art forms of Telangana, unsung heroes of the state, and photographs from padayatras of Dr K Laxman, G Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay will be showcased at the exhibition,” said a BJP leader, who is trying hard to bag a party ticket for the upcoming assembly election. The Telangana liberation movement, separate state movement, and the region’s heritage and culture, including the Ramappa temple, Warangal Fort, Kakatiya dynasty etc, will also be represented at the exhibition. As part of the ongoing Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav programme celebrating 75 years of India’s Independence, a section of the display would be dedicated to 75 important schemes introduced by the Union government. JP Nadda is expected to inaugurate the exhibition as a prelude to the national meeting.
BJP spokesperson NV Subhash has asked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao what his plans are ahead of the mega meet, since official protocol requires the CM to welcome the Prime Minister to the state. “In the recent past, whenever the PM has visited the state, CM KCR has been either away in his farmhouse, under treatment for COVID-19, or away meeting unimportant leaders. This time we wonder what his excuse is going to be when PM Modi and several cabinet leaders of the Union government will be in Telangana for the national executive meeting,” he said.
Ever since its victory in the Dubbak and Huzurabad assembly bye-elections, the morale of the BJP Telangana unit has been rather high. Besides, the party had also managed to win 48 out of 150 divisions in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections that followed. After the victory in the bye-elections, the BJP’s tally in the Telangana Legislative Assembly went up from one to three.