Shah to address meeting in Telangana on Saturday, mark peak of 'padayatra'

Top BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah will address a public meeting here on Saturday to mark the culmination of the second phase of party Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar's 'padayatra'.

Shah would visit the forensic science laboratory at Ramanthapur in the city on Saturday before attending the rally, BJP sources said.

The public meeting would be held Saturday evening at Tukkuguda on city outskirts.

Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, who inspected the venue of the meeting on Friday, expressed confidence that BJP would come to power in the state.

BJP President J P Nadda had attended a public meeting at Mahabubnagar on May 5 as part of Sanjay Kumar's 'padayatra', while Union Minister Bhupender Yadav and other senior leaders had also participated in the foot march.

Shah's public meeting assumes political signficance as BJP is making a determined bid to emerge as the alternative to the ruling TRS in next year's Legislative Assembly elections in the state.

BJP is buoyed by its successes in the bypolls of Dubbak and Huzurabad Assembly seats and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election during 2020 and 2021.

The three main players in state politics -- ruling TRS, opposition BJP and Congress -- have been making efforts to strengthen themselves to perform well in the assembly polls next year.

The TRS and BJP have been engaged in a bitter war of words over various issues since the last several months. TRS has been attacking the BJP and the Centre's NDA government over their alleged politics of polarisation and failures on various fronts.

The ruling party is reaching out to people in a big way with a slew of welfare and development programmes.

Meanwhile, the Congress is also trying to revive its fortunes, having suffered major setbacks after the formation of separate Telangana in 2014.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had recently attended a public meeting at Warangal on farmers' issues.

Sanjay Kumar had launched the second phase of his foot march, named 'Praja Sangrama Yatra', on April 14 from the temple town of Alampur. He held the first phase of his 'padayatra' last year.