How Sanjay drove the ‘Bandi’ for BJP in the GHMC polls

New Delhi, Dec 05: The BJP put up an impressive show in the GHMC elections, the results of which were declared on Friday.

The BJP ended up in the second place in the elections, while the TRS emerged as the party with most seats. A lot of this credit would go to Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who became the most popular face of the BJP during the campaign. In Telugu, Bandi means vehicle and Sanjay Kumar did manage to drive the BJP to an impressive number in the elections. The BJP ended up with 48 seats.

There were doubts raised about his leadership and many wondered being an outsider could he lead the party in Hyderabad. He hails from Karimnagar in north Telangana and questions were asked about his not from the city lineage.

He however proved everyone wrong. He ensured that the BJP opened up as a party for Hindus and he played the Hindutva card several times during the elections. During the campaign he had even dared Chief Minister, KCR to a public debate at the Bhagyalakshmi Temple at Charminar.

Bandi was active in the RSS and had joined the organisation when he was 12 years old. He was party affairs in charge for Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He had unsuccessfully contested the December 2018 Telangana assembly elections from Karimnagar. He however secured 66,000 votes, which was the highest number of votes secured by a BJP candidate. In 2019, he contested the Karimnagar Lok Sabha and beat the TRS candidate Vinod Kumar in his own stronghold. Bandi has also been a three time Corporator from Karimnagar.