The new state president will need to bridge this gap, balancing ideological campaigns with developmental promises to challenge the ruling Congress and a resurgent BRS in 2028.
Published Jun 29, 2025 | 12:01 PM ⚊ Updated Jun 29, 2025 | 12:01 PM
Eatala Rajender, Dharmapuri Arvind, K Laxman and N Ramachander Rao.
Synopsis: The BJP will elect a new president for its Telangana unit on 1 July. According to sources, the RSS has emphasised the need for a dynamic leader in Telangana to capitalise on the party’s recent electoral gains, particularly in urban areas and northern Telangana.
After what seemed an eternity, the juggernaut of the BJP has begun moving. The party will elect a new president for its Telangana unit on 1 July. Needless to say, it is a long time coming. The main contenders for the position are too well known — Backwards Class (BC) leaders Eatala Rajender, Dharmapuri Arvind, and K Laxman, all MPs, and former MLC N Ramachander Rao.
Party sources indicate that the odds are in favour of Rajender and Arvind since the party is keen on pitting a BC leader against the Congress, which is pushing for 42 percent reservations for BCs in local bodies, jobs, and education.
The election of the president is expected to give necessary thrust to the party in consolidating its presence in areas where it is already strong, like in constituencies where it won in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, but also break fresh ground in virgin territories.
The BJP won eight Assembly and an equal number of Lok Sabha seats in the recent elections. As the panchayat elections are looming large, the party president is expected to steer the party to bag a majority of the local bodies, leveraging the feel-good factor that the party’s fortunes are on the rise.
As there is not much time, the party machinery under the new leadership would have to pull up its socks and get cracking, to improve its performance as it is setting its eyes on capturing power in the state in the next elections, which are about three and a half years away. The near-term target is local body elections, which it intends to use as a springboard to rise as an alternative to the Congress.
Interestingly, the term of the BJP president is three years. This leaves the question of whether it would change the president just ahead of the Assembly election in 2028, as it had done in 2023 — for which it had paid a heavy price. It had brought in Union Minister G Kishan Reddy in place of Bandi Sanjay in July 2023, who was taking the party forward on a fast lane.
The party, sources said, is also yielding to the temptation of having a Reddy at the helm, as it has a fixed notion since the beginning that only a Reddy can lead the party, as the enemy camp — Congress — is led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
Apart from this, the Congress is packed with Reddy leaders, as the community is one of the two influential castes in Telangana, the other being Velama, to which former chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao belongs.
There is a section that feels that a Reddy might be a better candidate as he or she has to deal with Chandrashekar Rao too, whose BRS is showing signs of resurgence. If the party decides in favour of a Reddy, it might prefer Mahabubnagar MP DK Aruna, who draws a lot of water in her district and is considered a rival to Revanth Reddy, who hails from the same district.
The BJP’s organisational elections in Telangana, like in several other states, have faced significant delay. The party’s constitution mandates that state-level elections must be completed in at least 50 percent of its 37 state and Union Territory units before the national president election can proceed.
In Telangana, the process has been stalled due to the party’s focus on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, where it secured eight out of 17 seats with a vote share of 35.08 percent, doubling its tally from 2019. The extended tenure of incumbent state president Kishan Reddy, who also serves as a Union minister, has further delayed the transition.
According to sources, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has emphasised the need for a dynamic leader in Telangana to capitalise on the party’s recent electoral gains, particularly in urban areas and northern Telangana.
In this backdrop, there is speculation that Sanjay Kumar might be roped in as the next president, as his earlier stint (2020-23) had made the party a force to reckon with.
Prior to that, it was down and out, unable to influence any pocket of voters. However, sources said he had requested the party that his preference was to continue as the Minister of State, instead of taking the reins of the party once again in the state. According to sources, Ramachander Rao has also thrown his hat into the ring. It is said a section in the RSS is backing him for the post.
The BJP’s rise in recent years in Telangana has been meteoric, given its earlier status. From winning just one seat in the 2018 Assembly elections, the party has steadily expanded its influence, securing eight Lok Sabha seats in 2024 and eight Assembly seats in 2023.
Its growth has been aided by a robust RSS ecosystem, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) influence in universities, and strategic campaigns like the 2024 film Razakar: Silent Genocide of Hyderabad, which resonated with voters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The party has also capitalised on the weakening of the BRS and the Congress’s fluctuating fortunes.
However, the party would have to take a close look at the challenges going ahead. The party’s urban-centric base and reliance on Hindutva rhetoric may not cut much ice in rural areas, where regional issues play an important role.
The new state president will need to bridge this gap, balancing ideological campaigns with developmental promises to challenge the ruling Congress and a resurgent BRS in 2028.
At the macro level, the election of the Telangana BJP president is a pivotal moment for the party’s ambitions in South India, where it sees Telangana as a potential gateway after Karnataka.
The new leader will be tasked with sustaining the momentum from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, strengthening the party’s organisational structure, municipal and possibly Assembly by-elections if any of those who defected to Congress from BRS might get disqualified.
Immediately, it has to grapple with the Jubilee Hills by-election, which has been necessitated by sitting BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath’s death.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
