© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
As Rajasthan votes on Saturday in an electoral contest that may well end up being a close affair, all the attention will shift to Telangana which is the last of the five states to vote.
First, Rajasthan, where the incumbent has been voted out for more than three decades. The Congress will be looking to break that trend but the BJP is close on its heels. Throughout the campaign, the BJP has targeted the Congress-led government over law and order. “appeasement politics”, and tried to paint it as being anti-Sanatan Dharma. The Ashok Gehlot-led government, meanwhile, is banking on its welfare schemes and the political rhetoric of social justice.
Rajasthan battle’s most interesting aspect
As Hamza Khan, Liz Mathew, and Deeptiman Tiwary point out in their analysis, the elections will define the political futures of Chief Minister Gehlot and his predecessor Vasundhara Raje of the BJP. “Ironically, while a comfortable victory will mean the Congress would not be able to deny Gehlot the CM post, notwithstanding Sachin Pilot, a comfortable victory for the BJP might translate into the party high command having its way in easing out Raje,” they write.
What is happening in Telangana
Meanwhile, Sreenivas Janyala reports that a rain alert may play the spoilsport in Telangana on a day of power-packed campaign events. The prediction of rain has forced the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to cancel Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s meeting at the Parade Ground in Secunderabad.
The BJP has a star-studded line-up, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to address public meetings in the Kamareddy (district of the same name) and Maheshwaram (Ranga Reddy district) Assembly constituencies. Union Home Minister Amit Shah will campaign in the constituency of Kollapur in Nagarkurnool district, as well as in Khairatabad and Patancheru near Hyderabad and Munugode in Nalgonda district.
Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath will address public meetings in Sirpur (Komaram Bheem district), Vemulawada (Rajanna Sircilla district), Sanathnagar (Hyderabad) and Goshamahal (Hyderabad). Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis will also be in Goshamal where the BJP has fielded controversial MLA T Raja Singh. Apart from BJP national president J P Nadda, Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Smriti Irani, and Nitin Gadkari will also be in the state.
For the Congress, its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will address public meetings in Palair, Khammam, Wyra, and Madhira in Khammam district. CPI leader D Raja will join her at her last public meeting in the constituency of Kothagudem in Bhadradri Kothagudem district where the Left party’s state secretary Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao is contesting as part of a seat-sharing deal with the Congress. In the former communist strongholds of Nalgonda and Khammam, the Congress is banking on the support of a depleted Left to keep away the BRS.
CPI(M) national general secretary Sitaram Yechury and leader Brinda Karat will also arrive in Hyderabad and travel to some of the 19 constituencies where the party has put up candidates. Rahul Gandhi is also expected to arrive in Hyderabad after attending the Samvidhan Samman Sabha that Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi leader Prakash Ambedkar has organised in Mumbai.
Telangana from a national perspective: For the BJP, which has lost momentum in the state since its loss in neighbouring Karnataka, it will be crucial that the buzz surrounding the Congress in recent months does not translate into votes. A win will provide the Congress with a firm footing in south India — it will then be in power in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, two of the biggest financial centres in the region — and will be a massive boost in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections next year.
PM Modi at HAL
Meanwhile, PM Modi will also visit Bengaluru-based defence public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Saturday and review ongoing work at its manufacturing facility, officials said.
“The PM will review and visit HAL’s manufacturing facility, including that for Tejas jets,” a source told PTI. Modi has been pushing for indigenous production of defence products and has highlighted how his government has boosted their manufacturing in India and also their exports.
— With PTI inputs
