Hyderabad, July 3 (FN Agency) Sounding the poll bugle for 2023 Vidhan Sabha elections in Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said people in the state are eager for a “double engine’ government which will help in faster development of the state. The Prime Minister, addressing the party’s ‘Vijay Sankalp Sabha’ here, talked extensively about the central schemes like Ujjwala Yojana and Jan Dhan scheme, and also talked about the centrally sponsored programs in the state, as he stressed on how the schemes of central government have empowered women. He also mentioned the recent Greater Hyderabad municipal elections, and said it indicated the rising popularity of the BJP in the state ruled by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
“The public support that the BJP had got in Telangana is continuously increasing. We saw another glimpse of this in the Greater Hyderabad elections, when the BJP got unprecedented success,” Modi said. “The whole country is watching your enthusiasm and your love. The public support that the BJP had won in Telangana in the 2019 elections has been steadily increasing,” he said. “Whether it is free ration to the poor of Telangana, or free treatment, everyone is benefiting from the policies of the BJP government without discrimination.
This iis ‘sabka sath, sabka vikas’. That is why today the common citizen of the country has so much faith in the BJP,” he said. Modi said the BJP government in the center has brought positive change to the lives of people across the country. He talked about schemes like the Ujjwala Yojana, construction of toilets under Swachh Bharat, Poshan Abhiyaan and other central schemes and said it has empowered women across the country including Telangana. He also talked about the National Education Policy, and said it would enable students to get technical and higher education in their mother tongue. “When medical and engineering is taught in Telugu, youth from rural areas of Telangana will also be able to achieve their dreams,” he said. Calling Telangana a major center of research and innovation, he said the contribution of the state in making Covid vaccines and other equipment has saved crores of lives. Talking about centrally sponsored programs, he said the union government is working on five big projects worth more than Rs 35,000 crore related to irrigation in the state. He also said length of National Highways in Telangana has doubled in the last eight years.
“In 2014 there were about 2,500 kms of National Highways in the state of Telangana, today there is a network of five thousand kms,” he said. He added more than 2,700 kms of roads have been built connecting not only the cities but also the villages with the National Highway, and over Rs 1,700 crore has been approved for about two and a half thousand kms of new roads under the third phase of PM Gramin Sadak Yojana. “When the double engine government comes, the development will be faster,” he said. The BJP passed a statement on Telangana at its National Executive meet here, and said it will soon come to power in the state. The BJP has held its national executive in Hyderabad after a gap of 18 years. In the 2018 assembly election, the BJP won only one seat, and lost deposit on over 100 seats. In 2019 Lok Sabha polls however, BJP won four seats. In the 2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election, the BJP won 48 seats, and saw a 25 percent increase in vote share, while TRS won 56. BJP also performed well in recent by-elections in Huzurabad and Dubbaka constituency. BJP won the Huzurabad by-polls defeating TRS in its stronghold. Eatala Rajender, who quit the TRS and joined the BJP, won the Huzurabad bypoll with a margin of 23,855 votes. It also won the Dubbaka by-polls, as BJP’s Raghunandan Rao defeated TRS candidate S Sujatha with a margin of 1470 votes.