On the backdrop of bitter exchanges between AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and local state leaders of the party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned a mega show in poll-bound Hyderabad. BJP president Jagat Prakash Nadda will hold a roadshow in the city Friday. Voting for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election will be held on December 1. 

Free COVID-19 tests, electricity in BJP manifesto

Earlier today, the BJP released its manifesto for Hyderabad civic polls and promised financial assistance of Rs 25,000 for the families affected by recent rains. The manifesto, released by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also promises free electricity to families which consume less than 100 units and free travel for women in city buses and metro trains among others.

An effective plan to counter the spread of coronavirus will also be undertaken to ensure that everyone in the city gets tested for COVID-19, free of cost. Free drinking water supply, setting up three new women police stations every year and one toilet per kilometre for women, free Tablets for students of government schools are some of the other promises in the manifesto.

The campaigning for the elections has not been without controversies and political mudslinging. While the local BJP leadership has alleged that they will carry out a ‘surgical strike’ to ‘weed out infiltrators’ from GHMC area, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that if ‘there are any Pakistanis in the areas’, PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah are responsible for the same.

“If there are Pakistanis in the old city, then Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are responsible for it. Because it is their failure that they were sleeping and Pakistanis have entered here, I have never seen them here. They want to build a wall of hatred between Hindus and Muslims,” he had recently said.