After Karnataka in the south, the BJP is now eyeing to come to power in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh within a decade.
Addressing a huge party rally here today, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said during the "Varamahalakshmi" festival, which she celebrated here in 2000, a year after she lost to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Lok Sabha polls, she prayed to the Almighty to bring her party to power in Karnataka.
The BJP came to power on its own strength in Karnataka in 2008. The leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha had been coming to Bellary every year in the last one decade during the festival.
"Today, when I performed pooja, I prayed that we want to form government in Andhra Pradesh in less than 10 years", Ms Swaraj said.
She noted that when she contested the Parliamentary polls in 1999, Bellary was a Congress citadel but after that the BJP had consistently made inroads winning elections after elections, eventually leading to the party forming the government.
From Bellary to Bengaluru and now to Hyderabad, she said. Ms Swaraj concluded the speech with "Jai Bharat, Jai Karnataka, Jai Bellary", and then quipped: "next time, its also jai Andhra".