Perception that we are with BRS affecting BJP: Kishan Reddy

Hyderabad: With just two weeks left for polling, the Bharatiya Janata Party is going to intensify its campaign in Telangana to posit itself as the kingmaker, G Kishan Reddy, the state BJP president, said. In an interview with Deepika Amirapu, Reddy said the party’s decision to have an OBC CM would ensure victory for many of its candidates. Edited Excepts

PM Modi recently announced the constitution of a panel for classifying the Scheduled Caste sub-groups. What impact it will have for BJP in the polls?

The BJP is committed to social justice. The panel has been constituted not with a view to taking advantage of the community’s numbers but keeping in mind the demand of the SCs that has been long overdue. However, I will not deny that this social engineering will not bear an impact in the 24 seats where the Madigas are powerful.

If you intend to be the kingmaker, what options would you have given that you have limited options to partner with a larger party?

We want to play a major role in forming the government and we are confident of netting a sufficient number of seats in securing the kingmaker spot. The GHMC surprise will happen again. The people of this state have seen the Congress in power and the BRS in power; they haven’t seen the BJP rule yet. We will explore the available options after 03 December.

In what ways are you strategising to take advantage of the anti-incumbency?

There is an undercurrent of support for the BJP in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Old Medak, Kamareddy, Karimnagar, and in parts of Hyderabad city. The BJP voter votes silently. There is no flamboyance or convincing required because they side with us because of our ideology. What we are doing now is to communicate the message of development and change by deploying more than 20,000 RSS workers in these districts through a door-to-door campaign.

What is preventing you from announcing the CM candidate given that your party has decided to name a leader from the backward classes as chief minister?

Our party has a lot of BCs and, therefore, there are a number of chief ministerial candidates. When we made the declaration, it was not based on the person; it was based on the community because they account for a huge percentage of the Telangana population. Once the election results are out, our central leadership will decide on the CM.

From being the main threat to the ruling BRS six months ago, the BJP is now reduced to being a distant third. Some major decisions don’t seem to have gone your way.

The perception that we are with the BRS is affecting us. We are engaging our cadre in every constituency for them to disseminate the message that the BJP does not ally with ‘dynasty parties’ and ‘corrupt parties’. We are confident of turning around this narrative in the next two weeks in constituencies where we see a lot of traction with strong leadership.

At the ground level, we are conveying clearly that the BRS and Majlis parties are getting together and indulging in mud-slinging against the BJP. We have criticised the BRS for its flawed implementation of the welfare schemes and the Kaleshwaram project as well.

What is your party working towards? Defeating the Congress or being in power?

Both. To be in power, we are working hard to defeat the Congress.

There continues to be much attrition among the Telangana BJP ranks even after the nominations. What are you doing to stall leaders from going out?

The BJP is a party is strongly based on an ideology. A number of leaders from other parties joined us hoping to secure tickets and use the party to ascend higher politically. When their plan didn’t fructify, they quit. There has not been any issue-based attrition.

With neither a manifesto nor any guarantees, how do you plan to woo the voters?

The Congress and the BRS have disregarded the state’s finances completely and have made tall promises with scant respect for the mounting debt. The BJP as a party believes in development over freebies and the people are seeing it. Also, when the two parties have given 30-plus tickets to the Reddy community, we have favoured the backward classes and the scheduled castes. It is the responsibility of the BCs and SCs who account for more than 69% in the state to come out and support the Bharatiya Janata Party.