BJP not to have alliance with any party in T'gana for LS polls

HYDERABAD: Upbeat over increase in seats and vote share in the recent Assembly elections in Telangana, the BJP has decided to go alone in the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.

BJP state president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Friday asked party cadres to prepare for Lok Sabha polls, due to be held in April-May.

He made it clear that the BJP will not have an alliance with any party.

In the November 30 elections to Telangana Assembly, BJP had an alliance with Jana Sena Party (JSP) headed by actor-politician Pawan Kalyan.

The JSP contested eight seats but drew a blank.

The BJP, which had contested 111 out of 119 seats, bagged eight seats.

The saffron party had won just a single seat in the 2018 elections.

It had later improved its tally to three after winning two seats in the by-elections.

The BJP also managed to double its vote share from 6.98 per cent in 2018 to almost 14 per cent.

However, compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the vote share of BJP has come down.

In 2019, the BJP had polled 19.45 per cent votes and bagged four out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

It had contested alone and this was the highest number of seats won by the party in two decades.

The BJP bagged four seats in 1998 and seven seats in 1999 in united Andhra Pradesh.

It drew a blank in 2004 and 2009.

In 2014, the BJP secured one seat when Bandaru Dattatreya won from Secunderabad.

With impressive performance in the previous Lok Sabha elections, the BJP not only retained Secunderabad but also won Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Adilabad.

In the recent Assembly election, the BJP won six seats that fall in Adilabad and Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituencies. However, all the three MPs of the party suffered defeat in Assembly elections.

Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao lost the Boath Assembly seat.

Nizamabad Dharmapuri Arvind too suffered defeat in Koratla constituency.

BJP general secretary and Karimnagar MP failed to win Karimnagar Assembly seat.

The BJP also drew a blank in the Assembly segments falling under Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat.

The saffron also failed to win a single Assembly seat falling under Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency which is represented by Kishan Reddy.

The BJP leaders, however, are confident of bettering their performance in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

They believe that the voting pattern in Lok Sabha will be different due to the Modi factor.

As part of the preparations for Lok Sabha polls, BJP national president J.P. Nadda will be visiting Telangana towards December-end.

Kishan Reddy on Friday held a meeting with party office-bearers, district president and in-charges of Lok Sabha constituencies.

He and BJP general secretary in-charge for Telangana, Tarun Chugh addressed the meeting and directed the party leaders to be ready for the polls.

They were asked to take to the people various welfare schemes being implemented by the BJP-led government at the Centre under the Viksit Bharat campaign beginning on Saturday.

Kishan Reddy claimed that BJP has huge opportunities to grow in Telangana.

He exuded confidence that the results will exceed the estimates of the poll surveys.

He said the BJP would fight both the Congress and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).