The BJP is pushing hard to increase its base in Telugu-speaking states — Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as the assembly polls due in Telangana this year. In this bid by the saffron camp, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the Telugu Kashi Sangam programme at Varanasi on April 29.
According to the organisers, the objective of the programme is to celebrate and affirm the links between Telugu people and Kashi and, thus, numerous cultural and religious programmes will be part of this 12-day Pushkaralu festival in the prime minister’s constituency.
The festival will be held along the banks of the Ganga river after a gap of 12 years. Over 20,000 Telugu-speaking people from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will be arriving in the holy city for this festival.
“Arrangements have been made on a large scale to help people reach Varanasi. Buses will run on five special routes and there are special arrangements for Telugu people, including a 24-hour helpline and police patrolling. We have seen that a large number of pilgrims visiting Kashi are Telugu, so arrangements are being made keeping in mind the challenges that they face,” said Kashi Telugu Samiti president and Rajya Sabha member, GVL Narasimha Rao.
Rao said there was no direct train from Visakhapatnam to Varanasi, but railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had agreed to run special trains from Guntur, Tirupati and Secunderabad along with Visakhapatnam for the Kashi Telugu Sangam.
The BJP is putting a lot of its focus on Telangana, which will go to polls at the end of the year. In fact, there are clear instructions from Delhi to the state leadership to go full throttle against the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led government.
Top leaders of the BJP are regularly visiting the state. Earlier, too, the BJP had organised its two-day national executive meeting in Hyderabad. In November 2022, Prime Minister Modi had inaugurated the Kashi Tamil Sangamam, a month-long celebration with the objective to rediscover, reaffirm and celebrate the age-old links between Tamil Nadu and Kashi in Varanasi.
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