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A few months ago, the BJP was looking to steam ahead in Telangana and make a splash in the Assembly elections scheduled for later this year. But following the loss in neighbouring Karnataka in last month’s state elections, the party seems to have lost momentum in Telangana too.
At the centre of the party’s troubles is the unhappiness of senior leaders Etela Rajender and Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, both of whom want additional responsibilities in the organisation and want current state unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar out. Rajender, who joined the BJP from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in 2021, wants to be projected as the “shadow CM”. Leaders such as Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president J P Nadda, and the BJP national general secretary in charge of Telangana, Tarun Chugh, are in touch with Rajender and Reddy to sort out the problems and project a united front against the BRS.
“We were on cloud nine till the Karnataka Assembly results were declared. After that, the cloud burst and we are looking at internal squabbles and ego problems in Telangana. Suddenly, the momentum we created to dislodge the BRS has lost steam. Although on the ground there is no erosion in our support base, the morale is a bit down,” said a state BJP leader.
State BJP leaders said Rajender and Reddy were against the strategy of not projecting a CM candidate ahead of an election in which it is looking to win power in Telangana for the first time. “Seeking important posts and additional responsibilities and demanding that they be projected as the CM candidate, or dictating the choice of the state party president, will not be tolerated in the party. There are senior leaders such as G Kishan Reddy and K Laxman who have spent decades in the party and still do not make such demands,” the BJP leader said, adding that Shah and Nadda tried to defuse the situation by meeting Rajender and Raj Gopal Reddy in New Delhi on Saturday.
The BJP central leadership is said to be unhappy with the two after the state unit failed to bring in former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy and former state minister Jupally Krishna Rao. Srinivasa Reddy and Rao were among at least 33 BRS leaders who joined the Congress at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi on Monday in the presence of party leader Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Both Srinivasa Reddy and to an extent Rao were inclined towards joining the BJP but moved to the Congress following the Karnataka results. The environment in the party created by Rajender, the MLA from Huzurabad who refused to engage with former BRS leaders, and Raj Gopal Reddy is believed to have cost the party, angering Shah and Chugh. Some BJP leaders said the former BRS leaders might have moved to the Congress due to the apparent reluctance in the party to bring in leaders from other outfits because of the belief that they would demand important posts and old-timers would be ignored.
BJP morale hit
Elected to the Assembly four times on a BRS ticket, Rajender was one of the seniormost legislators in the ruling party and held crucial portfolios such as finance and health. He moved to the BJP after Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, dropped him from the Cabinet in May 2021 over allegations of land grabbing. He won his fifth term on a BJP ticket. During the meetings with senior BJP leaders, Rajender has made it clear that he will not quit the BJP and aims to fight the BRS, according to insiders.
Sources in the BJP said Raj Gopal Reddy — he quit the Congress last August and lost the Munugode Assembly bypoll contest to the BRS — was unhappy with the party for losing its way in the state the past few months and yielding ground to the Congress. He is learnt to be unhappy with the BJP’s electoral preparations and believes the party is going soft on the BRS. The BJP insiders said he might be considering a return to the grand old party. His elder brother Komatireddy Venkat Reddy is the Congress MP from Bhuvanagiri and is keen on bringing Raj Gopal back to the party fold. However, a probable stumbling block is Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy.
“Our party leaders have not been able to make out what Raj Gopal Reddy will do in the coming days,’’ said a BJP leader.
Telangana BJP leaders admitted that the internal power struggle had somewhat lowered the morale of the party cadre. “We were upbeat about our chances of winning Telangana as the Congress was in the doldrums. We are the alternative to the BRS but now the Congress is catching up. Hopefully, the central leadership will resolve this issue soon and we will be back on track,” said a BJP leader, adding that the outcome of the meetings in New Delhi was being keenly watched.
Big names join Congress
Meanwhile, the Congress is set to formally induct the former BRS leaders at a public rally in Khammam next month.
Srinivasa Reddy was the surprise winner from the Khammam Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 on a YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) ticket, overcoming a massive wave in favour of the BRS, which was then known as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Two years later, he quit the YSRCP and moved to the KCR-led party. In December 2018, he reluctantly supported the party’s Madhira MLA candidate L Kamal Raju after the BRS leadership declined to give the ticket to one of his supporters.
The following year, the party replaced him as the Khammam candidate and instead fielded Nama Nageshwara Rao who won. The party suspended him earlier this year for alleged anti-party activities.
Jupally Krishna Rao, the other big name to join the Congress, is a five-time MLA from Kollapur in Mahbubnagar district. He was the panchayati raj and rural development minister in Telangana’s first Cabinet. His first big electoral success was in 1999 when he won as an Independent candidate from Kollapur in 1999 as an independent. He won the next two Assembly elections (in 2004 and 2009) on a Congress ticket but resigned in 2012 as the Telangana statehood movement gathered pace. He switched to the TRS and won the subsequent bypoll. He won again in 2014 but lost the seat to the Congress in December 2018. He had been staying away from the BRS since then.
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