The Bharatiya Janatha Party still wants to draw its strength from Hindutva despite opposition from the new entrants in the party that the organisation should change its tack ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections in December.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah made the message clear by launching a broadside attack against AIMIM, saying it has been steering the car — the electoral symbol of the ruling BRS — at a public meeting in Khammam on Sunday, 27 August.
Shah’s assertion that AIMIM was a pariah indicated the party’s stand in the Assembly elections: It wants to play on emotive issues rather than focusing on the lack of infrastructure and grey areas in the implementation of the welfare schemes of the BRS’ dispensation.
Former BJP state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s line of attack on the AIMIM, which was mostly launched from a Hindutva platform, came under sharp criticism by the lateral entrants into the party, mainly Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender, who tried to persuade the party to change its offensive against the BRS.
He, along with former MLA and lateral entrant from the Congress, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, wanted the party to learn from the lack of response to the Hindutva agenda in Karnataka, where it faced a humiliating defeat.
Shah’s speech was a highly polarising one.For instance, he made references to Bhakta Ramadas and how he was imprisoned by the then Muslim rulers for constructing the Bhadradri Ramalayam.
That apart, there were several other references presenting Muslims in poor light.
He spoke of Tirumula Venkanna, Sthamabadri Lakshminarasimha Swamy temple in Khammam; the role Jamalapuram Keshavarao of Khamma had played in Liberation of Telangana from the clutches of Muslim rule; and how K Chandrashekar Rao had skipped the age-old tradition of the chief minister presenting silk robes to Lord Ram at the Bhadradri Temple on Sriramanavami day.
BJP general secretary Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s attack on AIMIM has always been along Amit Shah’s line.Bandi Sanjay, when he was president of the BJP state unit, dared the AIMIM to contest all 119 Assembly seats in the state, implying that the AIMIM had tacit understanding with the BRS.
The statement was believed to have been made to brand the BRS as communal as it was working in cohorts with the AIMIM.
If the AIMIM contests all seats, there would be a division in Muslim votes and, in the process, the BRS would suffer.
