The party, however, feels it has enough time. It is waiting for the Congress to finalise its candidates for the Assembly elections this year-end.
Published Sep 02, 2023 | 9:00 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 02, 2023 | 3:50 PM
Leaders of the Telangana BJP unit led by G Kishan Reddy. (bjp4Telangana/X)
The BJP is all set to initiate the process of finalising its candidates for the 119 Assembly seats in Telangana. Although late to the party when compared to the BRS and the Congress, the BJP has set a timeline for itself to complete the process of accepting applications from ticket aspirants.
The BRS was the first to announce its candidates in 115 out of the 119 seats, which gave it the first-mover advantage over its rivals.
By announcing the candidates early, the party gained ample time to douse the flames of dissidence, which are not alarming, except in a few constituencies like Palair.
Former minister Thummala Nageswara Rao is angry over Chief Minister and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao not fielding him from Palair in the erstwhile Khammam district.
Another advantage the BRS has is that the party will have enough time on the campaign trail since the most vexatious and painful process of finalisation of tickets has been completed.
The Congress, too, has begun choosing the candidates. The Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) went through more than 1,000 applications from ticket aspirants.
The list would be further vetted at the PEC’s second meeting on Sunday, 3 September, and it would be followed by a meeting of the Telangana Screening Committee on Monday. Committee chairman K Muraleedharan and members Jignesh Mevani and Baba Siddique will attend the meeting to finalise the list.
It is now the turn of BJP to begin the process. The saffron party — which does not have too many strong leaders to contest from the majority of the seats — has decided to accept applications for allotment of tickets from 4 to 10 September.
Despite the delay in beginning the process when compared to rivals like the BRS and Congress, the BJP claims it isn’t too worried.
Even as the two parties are forging ahead, the BJP leaders said there was no need to hurry since there was still a lot of time.
“The BRS may have announced its list but it does not mean we, too, should follow suit. Ours is a national party and we have certain procedures, methods, and time schedules,” BJP’s state spokesperson NV Subhash told South First, underscoring the point that the party would take its own time in finalising the candidates.
While Subhash had said the process may not commence till the end of September, the party’s state leadership seems to have had a change of hearts.
According to BJP state general secretary Gujjula Premender Reddy, BJP has decided to accept applications for allotment of tickets from 4 to 10 September. The applications would be accepted from 10 am to 4 pm on all days at the party’s central office in Hyderabad.
Before initiating the process, the members of the State Election Committee should have been finalised, but given that the BRS and Congress leaped ahead, the BJP too is playing catch up. The committee has Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajedner as its chairman, but the members have not been nominated.
“Once the committee is in place, the process of finalisation of tickets will begin,” Subhash said while admitting that there has been slackness in preparing for the elections.
“But from now on, the campaign will pick up. We are ready to get cracking. Till now, we were preoccupied with organisational work,” he said.
But the initial enthusiasm that marked the party’s approach to the election has lost some steam. Ever since the dissidence reared its head in the party over the way it was being led by Bandi Sanjay Kumar, the campaign lost some momentum.
The party’s debacle in Karnataka and the replacement of BJP state president Bandi Sanjay with Union Minister G Kishan Reddy further slowed down the momentum.
The BJP leadership does not appear enthused either. This is primarily based on the realisation that those who had not got BRS tickets would knock at the BJP doors.
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders are waiting for the Congress to finalise the candidates, which may not take much time. It hopes that some of the leaders who may not get the Congress ticket might cross over to the BJP camp.
The party, which has no proper network in the state, is struggling to keep whatever tempo it is left with.
It does not have strong leaders to contest from the majority of the seats. The Congress leaders who joined the BJP recently are reportedly missing the days in the Congress.
