Amit Shah likely to take party's active membership from Telangana

Hyderabad: BJP President Amit Shah is expected to take active membership from Telangana, where the party has set its sights on capturing power in the 2023 Assembly elections, a senior leader said here on Monday. "He (Shah) has promised and assured to take active membership from Telangana and Hyderabad, that too from my residential address," BJP Telangana unit president K Laxman told PTI here.

Taking active membership is a symbolism which Shah is showcasing as he considers Telangana as the priority state to come to power in the next elections, according to BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao. Laxman said Shah is expected to take the active membership on September 17 when he is proposed to visit the city to attend the celebration of 'Telangana Liberation Day' (which marks the merger of erstwhile Hyderabad state with the Indian Union in 1948), being organised by the state BJP.

He said the party's state unit has requested Shah, who is also the Union Home Minister, to attend the 'Telangana Liberation Day' on September 17. Laxman alleged the TRS government had betrayed the Telangana people by not organising state celebration of the day, though Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had questioned K Rosaiah, the then chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, for not celebrating the day. Not only TRS, but even the erstwhile governments in undivided Andhra Pradesh also did not celebrate the day and only the BJP can do it, he said.

The BJP president will address a public meeting to be organised by the party on September 17, he said. The party's Telangana unit is expected to receive a boost with Shah taking active membership from the state. Shah had launched the party's membership drive in Hyderabad in July and set a target of enrolling 18 lakh new members in Telangana in addition to the existing 18 lakh, instead of 12 lakh as planned by the state unit. Buoyed by its impressive gains in the Lok Sabha polls (winning four of the total 17 seats), BJP has been making determined efforts to emerge as the alternative to the ruling TRS.