The BJP in Andhra Pradesh has decided to go door-to-door – quite literally – ahead of the 2019 General and Assembly elections in the state. The state unit of the party held a high-level meeting in which they’ve decided to launch the ‘Intintiki BJP’ campaign – ‘BJP in every home.’ And their special target this time around, predictably, is former ally TDP.
Decidedly on the offensive, the BJP state unit has resolved to campaign aggressively against the TDP. In the meeting, the party decided to ‘expose the financial irregularities and poor governance’ of the ruling party in Andhra.
“The TDP has been campaigning viciously against us with false allegations,” BJP’s Narsapur MP Gokaraju Gangaraju told TNM.
“Chandrababu Naidu has appropriated the development works carried out by the central government and is projecting himself as the Messiah of the poor,” the MP alleged. “So, we have decided to counter them with facts, and also decided to expose the corruption and scams happening under their rule. We will reach out to the people and tell them the truth,” Gokaraju said.
Further, the party plans to knock on the doors of ‘prominent personalities in the state.’ “We will meet the personalities and give them the performance report with achievements of the Modi government,” BJP MLC PVN Madhav said.
Another target of the party is the Polavaram project – a pet project of Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, for which the Centre had earlier refused adequate funds, according to the TDP. The BJP has decided to visit the Polavaram project site to find out if there are any irregularities in the project.
The campaign that is set to start from the north coastal districts, will entrust each party leader with the responsibility of covering one region. For instance, the State president Kanna Lakshmi Narayana will be visiting Srikakulam, while the former state party president, Kambhampati Haribabu will be visiting Anantapur.
Kanna Lakshmi Narayana told TNM that they haven’t finalised the dates for the campaign yet.
While the BJP was in alliance with the TDP and Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena last time around, they’ve broken ties with both parties now. In the last General Election, the party had a vote share of 8.52% in the state, and won two Lok Sabha seats. In the Assembly Election in the same year, the party won only nine seats, and got a vote share of 21.82%.