BJP is still a guest actor in South

Telangana is on party chief Amit Shah's radar, as he tries to translate BJP's long-held dreams into reality

On Sunday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) celebrated ‘Hyderabad Liberation Day’ in Telangana with greater gusto than in the past. It hopes this event, marked by the presence of Rajnath Singh, the Union home minister, will help it outrival the Congress as principal opponent of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

This slice of history goes back to 1947-48, when the Razakars, a private militia headed by Syed Qasim Razvi, then president of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, helped the Nizam resist Hyderabad’s integration with the Indian Union. It has since been vested with contemporary resonances in sync with the BJP’s core