Hyderabad: Senior BJP leader and Union Health Minister J P Nadda Monday reviewed the party’s performance in the 7 December assembly polls in Telangana and also its preparedness for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
At a meeting with the BJP office-bearers and 119 candidates, Nadda took stock of the party’s defeat in the Assembly polls and asked party leaders to be prepared for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP MLC N Ramachander Rao told PTI.
“It was introspection of the defeat. He also gave a call to prepare for upcoming elections and asked us not to worry (about the results),” Rao said. “It was a positive discussion…the (Assembly) election results and preparedness for next elections were discussed. Party workers are committed to seeing that the party grows at a faster speed and will become the alternative in Telangana and for that all preparations are going on,” Nadda, who was BJP’s in-charge for the assembly polls in Telangana, said.
In the meeting, the office bearers and candidates said the state elections were “bipolarised” so the people have not taken the BJP into consideration, Rao said. Secondly, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu’s visit (campaigning) invoked Telangana sentiment which made people vote for the TRS, he said.
“Settlers across the state voted for TRS for security because they were afraid of being targeted by TRS, deletion of large number of voters resulting in narrowly losing 3-4 seats,” Rao, who was part of the review meeting, said.
Nadda said in the coming Parliament elections, it will be Modi and the rest. BJP national general secretary P Muralidhar Rao, state BJP president K Laxman, senior party leader and Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatraya, party’s lone MLA from Telangana T Raja Singh Lodh, and former state unit president G Kishan Reddy were among those who attended the meeting.
BJP contested the polls on its own and won only one Assembly seat of the total 119.