Modi popularity props up BJP in Telangana as Congress rides high on Assembly win, schemes

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi is popular… he is revered as a strong leader, but how can the Ram Temple in Ayodhya or a tunnel in Kashmir or an expressway in Mumbai help me? Hum ko kya fayda hai (How do we benefit)?” Sreenivas, a cab driver in Hyderabad, asks.

Few kilometres away in Sanathnagar, Ashok, a marketing professional and a self-proclaimed Modi supporter, complains about the wave of new entrants into the party. “The BJP does not have a solid leadership in Telangana. There is no selfless leader in the party like Modiji in the state… The party is now full of outsiders, not many who rose up the ranks,” Ashok says.

Sreenivas and Ashok sum up the BJP’s position in Telangana, one of the states in the South that the party is hopeful about to meet its 370-seat target. There is no escaping PM Modi’s popularity in the state – unprecedented for a BJP leader in the region – especially among the youth.

But there is also no denying that the party’s ranks are now filled with defectors from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Congress. If over 60% of its candidates in last year’s Assembly elections were “newcomers”, nine of the 17 in the coming parliamentary polls do not have a BJP or RSS background. Telangana Lok Sabha elections will be held in one go on May 13.

At the same time, grumblings within the ranks apart, this is also expected to pay off for the BJP in the long run. As the BRS virtually disintegrates amidst the exodus of its leaders, it has opened up the Opposition space for the BJP. Unlike in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the party does not have a partnership with a regional party in Telangana.

Sreethika and Varshita, both degree students at Begumpet, which falls under the Sanathnagar Assembly constituency, say “Modi is good