Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and KTR were among those who seized the day.
Published Nov 25, 2023 | 10:44 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 25, 2023 | 10:44 PM
BRS, Congress, BJP gear up for the end game. (Sourced)
The three principal political parties in Telangana — the BRS, the Congress, and the BJP — are scaling up their election campaigns as D-Day, 30 November, fast approaches.
Top leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), and his son and Minister KT Rama Rao, are moving every which way in the state to win the hearts of the people.
The day began in Telangana on Saturday, 25 November, with Narendra Modi playing the Backward Class (BC) card at his Kamareddy public meeting, reiterating the party’s resolve to make a BC leader the chief minister if elected to power.
The prime minister also referred to the party’s resolve to sub-categorise the Scheduled Castes (SCs) for reservations in employment and education to do social justice to Madigas, who had been at the receiving end until now.
మాటిచ్చిన ప్రకారం ఎస్సీ వర్గీకరణ ప్రక్రియ ప్రారంభమైందని భారత ప్రధాని శ్రీ @narendramodi గారు పేర్కొన్నారు.
మహేశ్వరంలో జరిగిన సకల జనుల విజయసంకల్ప సభలో సామాజిక న్యాయంపై బాధ్యతను గుర్తు చేశారు. తెలంగాణ ఎన్నికల్లో బీసీ సీఎం కల నెరవేర్చుకోవాల్సిన బాధ్యత మీదేనని సూచించారు.… pic.twitter.com/DHlnjGfePm
— BJP Telangana (@BJP4Telangana) November 25, 2023
The prime minister again brought up the issue of corruption by the BRS government, which has lost its edge with people not taking the charge seriously as the BJP had not initiated any measures against KCR’s family though it is runs the Union government.
The prime minister also tried to win farmers over to his side by referring to Kisan Rythu Samman that his regime had come up with, and claimed that the Union government had so far credited ₹2.75 lakh crore into the farmers’ bank accounts across the country.
His comrade-in-arms and party heavyweight Amit Shah picked up where the former left by playing on the raw nerves of the Muslims with the intention of rallying Hindus behind him.
People in the Patancheru Assembly Constituency say that their trust lies with Modi Ji. Pictures from the public rally in Patancheru (Telangana).
పటాన్‌చెరు అసెంబ్లీ నియోజకవర్గ ప్రజలు తమ విశ్వాసం మోదీపైనే ఉందన్నారు. పటాన్‌చెరు (తెలంగాణ)లో బహిరంగ సభ నుండి చిత్రాలు.… pic.twitter.com/3oUGNV45Cx
— Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AmitShah) November 25, 2023
At Kollapur, Shah said that after the BJP comes to power in the state, it would abolish all reservations based on religion, with an intention to provoke Muslims. He also vowed to take senior citizens on a free trip to Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, baring his patina of Hindutva.
Both leaders targeted KCR, vowing to end his rule and making him retch out the funds that he had misappropriated through illegal means in the construction of irrigation projects.
A battery of BJP leaders have hit the ground running baying for KCR’s blood. They included Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who conducted a road show in the Begum Bazar area in Goshamahal constituency. BJP President JP Nadda has already been addressing back-to-back election rallies.
Rahul Gandhi, who arrived in the afternoon, recited the six guarantees and promised to accord them statutory status for their compulsory implementation forever. He said that Sonia Gandhi had never thought that Telangana would slip into such a deplorable state when she delivered a new state to the people, in an attempt to rouse Telangana passions among the voters.
ఈరోజు హైదరాబాద్‌లోని అశోక్‌నగర్‌లో వివిధ పోటీ పరీక్షలకు సన్నద్ధమవుతోన్న యువతను నేను కలిశాను.
తెలంగాణ వస్తే తమకు కొలువులు వస్తాయని ఆశించామని, రాష్ట్రం వచ్చి పదేళ్లయినా తమ ఆకాంక్షలు నెరవేరలేదని వారు ఆవేదన వ్యక్తం చేయడం నన్ను కలిచివేసింది.
కేసీఆర్ పదేళ్ల పాలనలో తెలంగాణ యువతకు… pic.twitter.com/GzayJriQY8
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 25, 2023
He focused on how the Congress was going to do justice to the youth and the unemployed — a bunch of whom he interacted with in Hyderabad — by coming out with a job calendar. Priyanka Gandhi hopped from one place to the other, explaining what the Congress would do after coming to power.
KCR and KTR, who have been in overdrive, have been trying to rouse the people against the Congress. Both of them are asking the people to take informed decisions while voting and are pointing out that the BRS is the best among the three parties in the fray.
అసెంబ్లీ ఎన్నికల ప్రచారంలో భాగంగా నిజామాబాద్ బీఆర్ఎస్ ఎమ్మెల్యే అభ్య‌ర్థి @GaneshBigalaMLA గారికి మ‌ద్ద‌తుగా నిర్వ‌హించిన రోడ్ షోలో పాల్గొని ప్రజలనుద్దేశించి ప్రసంగించిన బీఆర్ఎస్ వర్కింగ్ ప్రెసిడెంట్, మంత్రి శ్రీ @KTRBRS#KCROnceAgain #VoteForCar pic.twitter.com/FncNeEXx4j
— BRS Party (@BRSparty) November 25, 2023
On Saturday, KCR was to address a huge public meeting at Parade Grounds but it was cancelled due to inclement weather.
In places where national and state leaders are not campaigning, the candidates are campaigning unrelentingly. The campaign vehicles move ceaselessly, winding through the gullies with loudspeakers blaring songs filling the air. Even if one shuts the doors and windows, the sound waves creep in and launch a frontal assault until the processions outside move on.
The street corner meetings the candidates hold have lost their edge and the people wait helplessly for the drill to complete. The catena of promises that the candidates reel out have lost their edge and yet the people are forced to cope with it.
The BRS lags none in organising massive public meetings all over the state, even as its chief KCR wishes that campaigning in India could be like in the US, where it is limited to TV debates.
The parties, not wanting to leave anything to chance, see to it that their promises reach the drawing rooms of every household. The newspapers have full-page ads on the front pages, explaining to people how evil and devilish the other parties are.
The BRS, which had been recounting its welfare schemes and the development it had brought about, now depends on negative campaigning.
One of its ads explains how cruel the Congress was when it was in power and how it stamped down the Telangana movement and crushed protests by farmers by asking the police to open fire at them like in Mudigonda long ago.
The Congress, mainly state party president A Revanth Reddy, has been carrying out what is almost a hate campaign against the BRS government. As his every fibre hates KCR and his family, Reddy finds it hard to choose decent words to come down on KCR.
The words, the phrases, his diction, and vehemence, however, seem to appeal to the crowd.
He defends his party using foul language against the KCR family, saying that it is this kind of language that the chief minister understands.
If he uses plain and bland language, he would run the risk of being projected as having mellowed down, which gives scope to canards that he had a secret understanding with KCR as had happened with senior leader K Jana Reddy when he tried to be decent and modest in the face of the BRS onslaught.
