BJP president Amit Shah arrived here on Wednesday on a whirlwind tour of the two states to give a ‘piece of advice’ to rank and file on how to attain power in the states by 2019.

Shah, who is understood to be considering the two Telugu states as gateways to the party’s base in the south, is understood to have decided to confine his tour only to formulate political strategies instead of engineering defections from other parties into his.  The saffron party’s leadership, which is focusing on the two states to strengthen its base to make the BJP a formidable political force in TS and AP following Congress’ rout in the last general election, wants to use Shah’s visit to asses the party’s strengths and weaknesses in the sibling states first hand.

Though the leadership is, for the record, is saying that its national president’s  visit is to review the party’s membership drive, sources say the hidden agenda of the tour is to draw up political strategies to make the party a ‘viable alternative’ to the TDP in AP and TRS in TS.

“During his interaction with party’s Telangana seniors here on Thursday morning, Shah will formulate a game plan to be adopted in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections,” a senior BJP leader from Telangana told Express. In the evening, Shah will interact with the state executive. Later, Shah will leave for Vijayawada.

After staying in the new capital region of AP on Thursday night, the BJP boss will review the party’s membership drive with the party’s State unit at Fortune Murali Park Hotel on Friday evening. Except some small-time leaders, no big fishes are joining the party either in TS or AP during Shah’s visit. The reason is that the BJP boss wants only those leaders who can change the game to join his party.

“Even though several Congress seniors and YSRC leaders are keen to join the BJP, our party president is not in a hurry to welcome them right now” said the source.

Shah’s visit is also considered by many as a prelude to prime minister Narendra Modi’s  visit to the two states in February.