BJP’s VIP candidates campaigning in Adilabad turned tide for local candidates

Adilabad: The impressive wins that BJP candidates recorded in the 2023 Telangana Assembly Election results are proof of the influence VIP campaigners have on voters.

The vote-generating effect on voters due to the presence of BJP VIP campaigners like prime minister Narendra Modi, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde in the erstwhile Adilabad district was palpable during their campaign visits in the last week of November.

The PM had addressed a public meeting at Nirmal district headquarters covering Nirmal and Mudhole constituency, while Adityanath addressed a public meeting at Kagaznagar, the main town in Sirpur constituency, and Shinde conducted a road show in Adilabad town and addressed a meeting in Bela mandal headquarters, part of Adilabad constituency.

Going by the results announced on December 3, BJP’s Alleti Maheshwar Reddy won by a margin of over 50,000 votes at Nirmal and the party’s Rama Rao Patel won by a margin of over 23,000 votes at Mudhole.

Marathi-speaking voters' base

In the case of Payal Shankar, the BJP candidate in the Adilabad constituency, the impact of Shinde’s speech in Marathi was visible in the shift in voter behaviour. Jainad and Bela mandals, the strongholds of the BRS, gave leads to the BJP candidate after the VIP visit due to the strong Marathi-speaking voter base which gave their support to the BJP.

In Sirpur too, Adityanath’s appeal to BC voters to align themselves with the BJP also seems to have worked. Here, the BJP candidate Palvai Harish Babu turned out a winner against the odds.