The forthcoming Munugode byelection was the main topic of discussion at the core committee meeting of Telangana BJP on Sunday, which was presided over by national general secretary Sunil Bansal.
The meeting that saw Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, Rajya Sabha MP K. Laxman, campaign committee chairman Vivek Venkataswamy, and former MP Vijayashanti, discussed about the electioneering plan in the days ahead as the election notification is expected soon.
Party sources informed that Mr. Bansal wanted the panel to take everyone along, including the new entrants and experienced, in devising the campaign strategy.
The committee took note of the State government’s “overdrive in trying to lure tribals” into its fold by enhancing the quota to 10% and other proposed welfare schemes besides the imminent launch of the national party by TRS.
Earlier in the day, the party leaders paid homage to the portraits of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on their birth anniversaries at the party office. They recalled the non-violent struggle taken up by Gandhiji for freedom and Quit India, Salt Satyagraha and other campaigns, which reverberated across the country. The former Prime Minister was known for his simplicity who did not flinch to give up his ministerial post for his principles, they said.
Meanwhile, party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, in a statement, criticised the government for not declaring a holiday for employees for Bathukamma festival and said it once again exposed the double standards of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Separately, talking to the media after inaugurating the election office of party candidate K. Rajagopal Reddy at Munugode, former Minister Eatala Rajender demanded to know where the TRS got money to purchase a private plane and said if KCR was running a budget surplus state, and why contract staff and revenue assistants were denied proper pay.
The State government should not only give ‘Girijana Bandhu’ for every tribal family across Telangana as well as ‘Dalit Bandhu’ and ‘Pedala Bandhu’ for every poor family instead of giving the benefits to a chosen few, he demanded. People of the constituency are convinced about welfare and development schemes only because of the bypoll and would teach a lesson to the ruling party, he added.
