BJP turns focus to local body elections

HYDERABAD : Enthused by its performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the state unit of the BJP is now focused on the upcoming local body polls.

The saffron party, which is aiming to capture power in the state in the next Assembly elections, is trying to use the local body elections as a platform to restrain the BRS at the grassroots level. The BJP, at its recent extended state executive committee meeting held in Shamshabad, directed the state leaders to promote cadre who have worked for the party to leadership positions by helping them win in the upcoming local body elections.

Except in Hyderabad, BJP has never performed well in local body elections in rural areas of Telangana in the past. The saffron party is now trying to break this trend by performing well in rural areas in the upcoming local body elections.

In the Lok Sabha elections, a significant section of the BRS voters turned to the BJP. The saffron party, which won only 13.9 percent votes in the 2023 Assembly Elections, increased its vote share to 35 percent in the recent Lok Sabha elections and won eight LS seats.

As the climate appears to be conducive, the BJP plans to ride the momentum and ensure the transfer of the remaining BRS vote bank. The leaders of the saffron party believe that leaders at the ground level will prefer the BJP to the Congress amid the changing dynamics. The BJP leadership has directed leaders who lost in the Assembly elections but won as MPs recently, and those who previously served as MLAs and MPs, to focus on winning more seats in local body elections in their respective constituencies.

The BJP aims to win seats on par with the Congress in the local body polls. By winning more seats than the BRS, it plans to project itself as the only party that can defeat Congress and form the government in the upcoming elections and set the political agenda for the next Assembly elections.