It was to be Amit Shah's first visit to the state after Kishan Reddy took over as BJP Telangana state president.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah. (Twitter)
It looks as though the elements are against the BJP. The heavy rains lashing Telangana for the past one week have thrown a wet blanket on the BJP’s plan to rev up the party machinery for its meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
The rain has played party-pooper, forcing the cancellation of his scheduled visit to Hyderabad on Saturday, 29 July — meant both as an outreach to key influencers as well as to address the still simmering differences in the BJP’s state unit after the ouster of former president Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
In fact, it is for the second time that Amit Shah’s visit to Telangana has been put off. He was to have arrived on 15 June to address a major public meeting at Khammam, but that had to be cancelled as cyclone Biparjoy was headed to his home state Gujarat.
The state BJP had made elaborate arrangements for the Khammam meeting to demonstrate its strength and lift the sagging spirits of cadres after the party’s Assembly election loss in neighbouring Karnataka.
The idea was to convince the people that BJP was a party to reckon with in Telangana, and the election dynamics that led to the fall of the BJP in Karnataka were entirely different from those in Telangana.
After the meeting was cancelled, which was like a douche of cold water thrown at the party workers, they had been waiting for Amit Shah’s next visit.
In the meanwhile, much water has flowed down the Musi. Bandi Sanjay Kumar was replaced as the president of Telangana BJP by Union Minister G Kishan Reddy. The former BJP president’s loyalists and workers were upset with the party’s decision as the blow came at a time when the party was surging under Bandi Sanjay’s leadership.
When Amit Shah’s meeting was scheduled for 29 July, hopes soared that his visit would lift the spirit of the party workers. Though no public meeting was organised either at Khammam or in Hyderabad this time, the party deemed it fit to have workers meeting indoors.
As Amit Shah’s meeting was taking place for the first time after Kishan Reddy took over as BJP state president, it was hoped that he would turbo-charge the workers which was very much required in view of the recent developments.
An impression also gained ground that the party would spring back into action since Bandi Sanjay would let the bygones be bygones after his tete-a-tete with Amit Shah in Delhi recently where the latter is understood to have complimented him for imparting momentum to the party.
It is only a matter of time before Sanjay finds a new role in the party. Against this backdrop, the party functionaries hoped that the situation would turn for the better. Now that Amit Shah’s visit is off, the party leaders have nothing to do except wait for his next dates.
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