The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national leadership seems to have finally quelled the internal rebellion it was facing over a leadership crisis in Telangana. With the appointments of Secunderabad MP and Union minister G Kishan Reddy as the new party president, and Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender as chairman of the Election Management Committee, dissenters who were unhappy with previous president Bandi Sanjay have been placated. Reddy too has his task cut out as the BJP will be facing a resurgent Congress in the upcoming Telangana Assembly polls this year.
“Bandi Sanjay was unilateral in terms of decision making. He did not accommodate us who joined in recent years into any of the big meetings. Even with elections only six months away he was not doing anything. Many of us were unhappy. Now with the leadership change things will get better as Kishan Reddy is an acceptable face for us. Moreover, Eatala being in-charge of the election management means he is also in a powerful position,” said a BJP leader from Hyderabad who joined the party from the Congress a year ago.
Kishan Reddy, within the BJP, is seen as someone ‘neutral’, who can also talk to people from other parties who have joined. “Making him party president was also important for the RSS cadre who don’t want outsiders from taking big posts,” said the BJP leader.
Eatala Rajender, who was gunning for the post of party president, had been at odds with Bandi Sanjay from some time after he joined the BJP in 2021. After being sacked as state Health minister from the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) over corruption charges, Rajender joined the BJP and resigned from the Huzurabad seat. He successfully contested on a BJP ticket, defeating the BRS in the subsequent by-poll.
According to a BJP leader, apart from Eatala, others who joined his camp against Bandi Sanjay include names like ex-Congress leaders DK Aruna, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy. “As of now the task will be to find candidates for all the 119 Assembly seats in Telangana,” he added.
Another senior BJP functionary from the state, who also requested anonymity, conceded that the party in Telangana does not have enough names for all the Assembly seats in spite of elections being close. “Earlier it seemed that many leaders were ready to defect to the BJP, but now it has slowed down a little. We will know what is going to happen in a month,” he told TNM.
In the 2018 Telangana Assembly elections, the ruling BRS won 88 of the 119 seats. The Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP), in spite of forming a ‘grand alliance’ with other smaller parties, could win only 19 and two seats respectively. Raja Singh, BJP’s Hindutva mascot, was the lone candidate who managed to retain his Goshamahal seat in Hyderabad.
Soon after the results, 12 Congress MLAs from the Congress defected to the BRS, more or less leaving the main opposition in the Assembly almost defunct. However, in spite of its setbacks, the Congress is in an upbeat mood after the party won the Karnataka state election earlier this year. Moreover, the entry of two big BRS leaders, ex-minister Jupally Krishna Rao and ex-MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, has also boosted the party’s confidence and cadre ahead of the state polls.
“Now that we have a new president there will be changes, and the BJP will take on the BRS in the state. We are not even looking at the Congress and everyone in the party will work together,” said BJP leader M. Vikram Goud from Hyderabad, who quit as general secretary in the Telangana Congress and switched sides.