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The applause had barely died down when Naraparaju Ramchander Rao began to speak. Standing before party workers in Hyderabad on June 30, shortly after being named the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Telangana president, he reached for a favourite tale from the Sangh’s early days — a reminder of how far the party had come.
“In undivided Andhra Pradesh, a friend of mine had contested from the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (the precursor to BJP) in Kurnool. He got around 1,000 votes but the Communist Party won. Our cadre in the Jana Sangh started bursting crackers and celebrating,” Ramchander recalled.
The Communists, he said, were perplexed and asked why they were celebrating. “A Jana Sangh karyakatha replied, ‘We got 300 votes the previous time and this time around, we nabbed a 1,000.’”
“From such adversity,” he added, “we today have eight MPs, eight MLAs, three Rajya Sabha members, and three MLCs in Telangana.”
The anecdote was quickly followed by a promise: to build up the Telangana wing of the BJP and ensure its electoral victory in the state.
Ramchander’s appointment came as a surprise, prompting even the resignation of state presidential hopeful and incumbent Ghoshamahal MLA T Raja Singh, who said the appointment hurt the sentiments of lakhs of karyakarthas. Ramchander Rao was privileged over Telangana’s more prominent BJP faces, including Members of Parliament (MPs) Bandi Sanjay and Raghunandan Rao, as well as the most touted candidate for the post, Malkajgiri MP Eatala Rajender.
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It is not uncommon for the BJP to appoint less popular leaders to the post of state president. In Uttar Pradesh, Keshav Prasad Maurya was appointed state president in April 2016. Less than a year later, the BJP won the UP Assembly elections. Although Keshav Prasad was a strong contender for the Chief Minister’s post, he was made Deputy CM in favour of the more popular Yogi Adityanath.
In Haryana and Delhi as well, state presidents Ram Bilas Sharma and Virendra Sachdeva steered the party to electoral victories, yet lost out on the Chief Minister posts to Manohar Lal Khattar and Rekha Gupta respectively.
But why Ramchander Rao?
What attributes and political history does the BJP rely on when appointing state presidents? Why has Ramchander Rao — a one-time Member of Legislative Council (MLC) who has faced more electoral losses than gains been chosen?
Speaking to TNM, Telangana BJP spokesperson Krishna Sagar Rao said the party has had instances where appointing newcomers who do not fully grasp right-wing politics created problems.
“The party then realised that it was better to rely on people strongly rooted in the BJP ideology, who have clocked in the requisite work. Hence Ramchander Rao was chosen,” he said.
A 66-year-old Brahmin man, Ramchander Rao is, as Krishna Sagar points out, strongly rooted in the BJP ideology.
A member of the right-wing student organisation Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) during his student days, Ramchander was elected president of the students’ union for three consecutive years at Hyderabad’s Railway Degree College. He was also elected as ABVP secretary at Osmania Law College’s students’ union.
He lost the MLC election in 2009, won it in 2015, but was defeated again in 2021 by Surabhi Vani Devi, daughter of former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao.
“What the party needs now is not a leader, but somebody who can coordinate party activities and ensure it functions properly. There are several people who have worked in the party for a long time, but Ramchander Rao has a strong history, and the MLC victory also worked in his favour,” BJP leader Premender Rao told TNM.
Ramchander’s strength as a lawyer
But perhaps Ramchander’s biggest strength lies in his work as a senior criminal lawyer in the Telangana High Court.
“Anytime a member of the ABVP was arrested by the police, Ramchander Rao would defend them,” former BJP legal cell convenor Anthony Reddy told TNM.
Ramchander is well-known for ensuring the acquittal of godman Swami Aseemanand and four others linked to the BJP’s parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in the Mecca Masjid blasts that shook Hyderabad in 2007.
But Anthony adds that it wasn’t just the Mecca Masjid case. “When several RSS karyakartas were wrongfully accused of terrorist activity in the Ajmer and Malegaon blasts, Ramchander Rao was part of the legal team that ensured their acquittals," he added.
When N Harinath, the public prosecutor representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Mecca masjid case, was accused of lacking experience in criminal law, Ramchander jumped to his defense.
"I don't see anything wrong. He (Harinath) is a competent character and has been appointed as a public prosecutor," Ramchander told India Today in April 2018.
According to Anthony, Ramchander is the reason why the BJP’s legal cell is active today.
But despite his political appointment, Ramchander is not letting go of his legal practice. In a statement issued to the BJP legal cell on Friday, July 4, he said that all existing cases would continue to be handled by him and his colleagues through his office.
Why not Eatala?
Setting aside political history, Ramchander’s appointment came as a surprise to many, especially since Malkajgiri MP Eatala Rajender was touted to be the next in line for the state president post. This is the second time Eatala has been passed over — the first being in July 2023, when he lost out to G Kishan Reddy ahead of the Telangana Assembly elections.
“The common understanding is that Eatala was a pivotal voice in the Telangana movement and hails from the Mudhiraj community, a populous caste categorized as BC-D in the state. Both the ruling Congress and opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) don’t have strong Mudhiraj voices, and ideally, it would have been a good move for the BJP,” said political analyst Professor K Nageshwar.
“But certain things worked against Eatala,” Nageshwar said. “He had internal opposition in the party and a faction of the Telangana BJP that supported former state president Bandi Sanjay vetoed his appointment.” Further, he added, with Eatala defending the BRS’ flagship Kaleshwaram lift irrigation project before the PC Ghose commission he lost out. Eatala was with the BRS when the project was constructed.
Controversies clouding Ramchander’s elevation
Ramchander’s appointment has not gone without criticism. Speaking to TNM, Hyderabad-based human rights activist SQ Masood again referenced the Mecca Masjid blasts.
“When Judge Ravinder Reddy was invited to the Telangana Jana Sangh (TJS) party, we had our reservations as he had acquitted the accused in the Mecca Masjid blasts despite the NIA putting forth a strong case. The same reservations can be expressed now. As a lawyer, you can defend anyone. But a political appointment is worrying,” he said.
Ramchander was also named an accused in the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a Dalit activist belonging to University of Hyderabad (UoH)’s Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) — a death that activists have since described as an “institutional murder.”
The chain of events began in early 2016, when then ABVP general secretary Susheel Kumar alleged that a group of ASA members, including Rohith, had “roughed him up.” Though an inquiry later found no evidence to support the claim, the incident triggered swift political movement. BJP leaders — then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya and MLC Ramchander Rao — were accused of pressuring the UoH administration to take action against the ASA activists.
The administration suspended Rohith and four other ASA members. Days later, Rohith died by suicide, leaving behind a letter that would spark nationwide protests and raise urgent questions about caste discrimination on Indian campuses.
In February 2016, Telangana’s High Court stayed Ramchander Rao’s arrest in the case, citing a “lack of investigation.”
“Despite knowing that then ABVP general secretary Susheel Kumar was not assaulted by members of ASA, (Ramchander) was among the people who encouraged the suspension of Rohith Vemula and other ASA scholars,” said Akash Kumar, ASA convenor and the current vice president of the UoH students’ union.
“The appointment is, however, unsurprising and predictable,” Akash added, “as the BJP has always rewarded such people.”