Political churn in Telangana: PM Modi's visit signals BJP's ambitions

Hyderabad: Telangana is witnessing a fresh wave of political activity as the BJP, buoyed by its recent victory in West Bengal, sharpened its focus on India's youngest state-Telangana.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nearly six-hour visit to Hyderabad on Sunday set the tone, with the trip combining warm personal gestures with unmistakable political signalling.

Modi made stops at the residences of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu\ and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan. At Naidu's home, he spent close to an hour with the family a notably generous allocation of time given his packed schedule.

Beyond the personal warmth, Telangana's political landscape was understood to be a key topic of discussion between Modi, Naidu, and his son Nara Lokesh, with the upcoming Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections a central concern.

Though firmly anchored in Andhra Pradesh politics through his TDP, Naidu commands a strong following among Greater Hyderabad region roughly one crore population with settlers from Andhra Pradesh and the city's influential IT professional community in majority.

Pawan Kalyan, too, enjoys considerable popularity among the region's youth. The BJP is now said to be actively seeking to leverage this goodwill as it looks to make inroads into the GHMC region, where it has historically struggled.

In the 2023 assembly elections, both the Congress and the BJP drew a blank in the GHMC area, with the BRS sweeping all 20-odd seats in Hyderabad's urban core. Of the state's 39 segments, BRS won the pink party dominated the GHMC constituencies and the peripheral areas of Ranga Reddy and Medak districts.

The BJP did manage to improve its position in north Telangana, winning seven assembly seats and finishing second in 19 others but the party recognises that capturing Hyderabad's urban belt is essential to any serious bid for power. That ambition has been bolstered by its strong showing in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, where it claimed eight of Telangana's 17 parliamentary seats.

Modi's visit also generated considerable buzz with his playful but pointed response to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy. At a public event where the Prime Minister inaugurated development projects in the state, Reddy speaking first invoked the "Gujarat Model," noting that Modi had achieved developmental success as Chief Minister with the support of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

He urged Modi to extend similar backing to Telangana, which aims to become a USD 1 trillion economy by 2034 and a USD 3 trillion economy by 2047.

Modi's reply was characteristically sharp. He said he was willing to give Telangana exactly what the Centre gave Gujarat during Manmohan Singh's decade in power but with a catch. "The moment I do that, what you are receiving now may become half. You will not be able to reach where you want to reach. That is why it is better you join me," he said.

His suggestion that Reddy "connect with him" framed pointedly as a "non-political point" sent Congress and BJP circles in the state into a frenzy of speculation.

With GHMC elections on the horizon, polls pending across at least two more corporations, and Congress continuing to assert dominance in rural and urban local body contests, the political contest for Telangana is only set to intensify.