Hyderabad: BJP president Amit Shah, who held extensive discussions with the party leaders at various levels during a day long hectic tour of Hyderabad, was far from happy with the state of affairs and poll preparedness of the party in Telangana.

Instead of any public pronouncements and criticism of the political rivals Amit Shah’s focus was on the closed door discussions with the leaders of the BJP, RSS and other front organisations to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the party in the state as they gear up for the coming elections.

Amit Shah was visiting Telangana for the first time in more than a year. During his last visit in May 2017 to Nalgonda and Hyderabad too he had expressed dissatisfaction with the condition of the party.

Sources said he gave the road map with a target of winning 60 odd seats from the 119 assembly seats in the coming elections to bring the BJP to power in Telangana. Similarly he also focused on the prospects of the party in 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state and gave a target of 15.

However some state party leaders were circumspect about the prospects of winning a majority and opined the party had a chance of winning 35 assembly and 8 Lok Sabha seats.

Amit Shah’s strategy for the state, evolved at various meetings, was centred on a well-oiled machinery starting with the booth level committees with dedicated and resourceful workers. That explains his interaction with the vistaraks (full time party workers) from all the assembly constituencies. In identifying constituencies with good prospects for the BJP, special attention was paid to the segments with sizeable minority population. Hyderabad Lok Sabha constituency, which is held by the MIM since 1984 without a break also came up for special mention at various interactions. Some of the leaders were of the view that voters can be polarised in constituencies which had large minority voters.

Amit Shah, who landed at Begumpet airport in a special flight in the morning was taken to a city hotel in a massive rally of motorbikes with party workers shouting slogans in support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. Telangana BJP President K Lakshman and other leaders accorded a warm welcome to him. But a large number of party workers mobilised at the airport were in for a disappointment as a promised address by Shah to them did not materialise as he left without making any speech.

His first engagement was a meeting with the state leaders of RSS, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and other front organisations where he reviewed the socio-political situation of the state. The recent controversy over the externment of religious leader Swamy Paripoornananda by Telangana government also came up for discussion. Leaders of front organisations told Amit Shah that they will take up the issue with the governor while the BJP leaders said they have already met the governor.

At a meeting of vistaraks of the party, sources said he was unhappy over the failure of the state leadership in forming all booth level committees. He also expressed his unhappiness over the state leaders not adhering to all the 23 guidelines and confining themselves to only 12 in forming booth committees. The state leaders were functioning as per their own whims and fancies, Amit Shah was stated to have observed at the meeting of the core committee and election management committee at the party headquarters.

During an interaction with constituency-level workers some participants complained to Shah about the style of functioning of some of the leaders.

He directed the party to complete the formation of the booth committees in all the constituencies by next month-end. He suggested that the polling booths in every constituency should be divided in tofour categories of A, B, C and D in accordance with the party’s strength and prospects and in each booth area identify five workers with smartphones and five with motorbikes.

State party president K Lakshman and others briefed Shah about the Jana Chaitanya Yatra he had taken up in the state. Shah inquired about the constituencies covered by the yatra and the response it evoked from the people.