Amit Shah meets BJP leaders in Hyderabad as party seeks to establish its footprint in Telangana

Hyderabad: BJP president Amit Shah on Friday told party leaders in Telangana to focus on winning a substantial number of Lok Sabha and state Assembly seats in the elections next year. On a day-long visit to Hyderabad to discuss about the strategy for the polls in the state, where the party has a minimal presence in the Assembly besides having a lone Lok Sabha member, Shah met senior leaders of BJP’s state unit and also those working full time for the party. “Amit Shah ji gave guidance on preparing the party for (the contest) in the 17 parliamentary constituencies and 119 Assembly seats (in Telangana),” state BJP General Secretary G Premender Reddy told reporters. [caption id=“attachment_4675671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP chief Amit Shah. PTI[/caption] The Assembly elections in Telanagna would be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls next year. BJP currently has one Lok Sabha member and five MLAs in the state. The party aims to come to power in the state and also increase the tally of Lok Sabha seats to double digits, state BJP president K Laxman had said recently. Reddy said Shah’s guidance included appointing a team for each parliamentary constituency and also people who would work at different levels for elections, building up agitations on people’s issues and working to “win a high number of parliament seats and high number of Assembly seats.” The party would announce a plan of action accordingly and take up agitations on people’s issues from the end of July, he said. Replying to a query, he said Shah did not give any message about early polls (as being speculated in some quarters). Shah was informed about the ‘Jana Chaitanya Yatra’ recently undertaken by Laxman and he released a book on the yatra, a BJP release said. It said Shah met star shuttler Saina Nehwal as part of the party’s ‘Sampark for Samarthan’ campaign. Earlier, the BJP chief arrived was accorded a warm welcome by party state unit on his arrival at the Begumpet airport for the day-long visit.