By Manesh Yadav 

Recently in December 2020,  we saw a high-octane political campaign in Hyderabad. Not for an assembly or parliamentary election but for a municipal election in the capital city of Telangana. So far, we have never seen such a large scale of a campaign for a civic body election elsewhere in the country. Even Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the party chief JP Nadda participated along with several other BJPs top brass to provide a boost to the campaign. This paid huge political dividends to BJP where its tally of seats in GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation)) went up drastically from 4 to 48.


Photo Credit: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP

But this did not happen all of a sudden. To understand the entire political landscape, we must go back to the 2018 state assembly election. 

Out of 119 assembly seats in Telangana, BJP won only 1 seat in the 2018 state assembly election securing 7% of the vote share. However, it surprised by winning 4 seats out of 17 Lok Sabha seats securing 19.7% of the vote share in the 2019 parliamentary elections of Telangana. It was held just seven months later to the state assembly election. BJP gave a huge jolt to the ruling TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samiti) establishing its presence in the northern region of Telangana which is considered to be a stronghold of TRS. 

Previously, the BJP was confined to the city of Hyderabad, where it used to win the Secunderabad parliamentary seat as well as some assembly seats which came under the same parliamentary seat. For the first time, BJP emerged as a threat to the TRS. This looks so because BJP’s young leader Arvind Dharampuri defeated Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha by 71,000 votes, BJP’s Sanjay Kumar (now BJP state President) defeated KCR’s close confidant B Vinod Kumar and BJP’s Soyam Bapurao won Adilabad Parliamentary seat. These defeats in the northern region of Telangana were humiliating for the TRS because it was the region that saw the beginning of the movement of a separate state Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. KCR’s party TRS thrived on the sentiments of a separate state. This helped him become the first CM of the state and he secured his second term as well.

However, the new challenger BJP is now knocking on the door of TRS sidelining the Congress party. This comes despite the fact that the then UPA President played a pivotal role in the formation of a separate state Telangana. Moreover, due to the decision to push for a separate state, Congress lost its support base from the rest of Andhra Pradesh. Despite their support for Telangana, Congress could not capture power in the state and a much shrewd KCR, who initially promised to merge his party into Congress once a separate state of Telangana is formed, went alone to contest the 2014 state and general elections (which was held simultaneously in 2014). 

Now, KCR’s TRS has to face a new reality of a much aggressive BJP which is slowly eclipsing the Congress and becoming a principal challenger to the ruling party.


The meteoric rise of the BJP in Telangana

In November 2019, BJP candidate M Raghunandan Rao won the Dubbaka by-poll which was necessitated after the death of sitting TRS MLA Solipeta Ramlinga Reddy. The Dubbaka constituency is surrounded by three VVIP constituencies of Gajwel, Sircilla, and Siddipet represented by Chief Minister KCR, KT Rama Rao (Minister and son of CM KCR), and T Harish Rao (Minister and nephew of CM KCR). 


In Photo: Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Photo Credit: Kerala Kaumudi)

The meteoric rise of the BJP in Telangana is due to various reasons. TRS came to power after the formation of Telangana but leaders and caders of other political parties such as TDP (Telugu Desam Party) and YSRCP (Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party) joined BJP. Also, apathy and negligence by the central Congress leadership made several Congress leaders like DK Aruna, K Sudhakar Reddy join BJP. And now, a firebrand leader with RSS background Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is a Member of Parliament from Karimnagar, heads BJP in Telangana. He keeps himself in the headlines due to his controversial and often communal statements. Since he became the party president in March 2020, BJP’s performance has gotten better in Telangana.

Bandi Sanjay is playing his card cleverly given the fact that the state’s demography provides him the political ammunition to play BJP’s brand of politics based on religion and nationalism. Telangana has almost 13% Muslim population. It has a strong presence of AIMIM, a “Muslim party” led by Asaduddin Owaisi. Since the inception of Telangana, ruling TRS has brought a considerable amount of minority voters into its fold by maintaining friendly relations with Owaisi’s AIMIM and by advocating reservation for minorities based on religion. The tactics worked in weakening Congress but provided a much needed political environment for BJP to play its card. 

BJP is now accusing TRS of nepotism, corruption, and being Anti-Hindu & autocratic in manner. BJP has landed perfectly in Telangana and is gaining public support for the kind of politics it does and known for. It is still 3 years to go for the next assembly elections but BJP, being a well-organized election machine is trying hard to capture one more state. After West Bengal, BJP central leadership is most likely to focus on Telangana. It remains to be seen whether KCR’s TRS will contain the growth of BJP or will be dethroned by it. The recent BJP victories in the state suggest that BJP will further intensify its brand of Hindutva politics.