The move is to relieve current BJP state chief and Union Minister Kishan Reddy of dual responsibilities and streamline the party's affairs.
BJP leaders DK Aruna, Eatala Rajender.
After all the noise regarding the Lok Sabha elections has died down, the Telangana unit of the BJP is almost at the end of choosing the leader who will adorn the hat of its state president.
The move is to relieve its current state chief and Union Minister for Coal G Kishan Reddy of dual responsibilities and streamline the party’s affairs in the state — similar to how it is doing elsewhere in the country.
The saffron party is closely examining its state unit to identify the leader who has the calibre to take it forward, with the primary goal being the extermination of the BRS to emerge as a challenge to the Congress by the time of the next Assembly elections — in almost five years.
BJP is riding on a wave of confidence in Telangana after winning eight seats in the recent Lok Sabha elections, a 100 percent increase from 2019 when it won only four.
In the 2023 Assembly elections, the party won eight seats. In the 2018 Assembly polls, it had won only one seat.
As the party’s task is cut out — edging out the BRS from the Telangana political landscape — the party leadership is debating the better bet — a Reddy or a Backwards Class (BC) community leader to lead the party from the front.
Since incumbent Congress Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy belongs to the Reddy community, the party is said to be considering Mahbubnagar MP DK Aruna.
Her chances are high because of being a female leader from the Reddy community, who happens to be from the same district as Revanth Reddy.
This apart, the rivalry between the two leaders which had reached a flash point during the recent Lok Sabha elections might also act as a motivation for Aruna to cut the Congress down to size as it begins acquiring the flab of anti-incumbency.
The party is also considering Malkajgiri MP Eatala Rajender — a sworn enemy of former chief minister and BRS supremo K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR).
Sources said that the party believes that Rajender would be able to tap into the enormous BC vote bank, particularly Mudirajs — a very populous BC caste across the state — to push the BRS to the fringes.
As Rajender has old scores to settle with KCR, the party is believed to have veered to the conclusion that he would strain his every fibre to see his former boss’ downfall.
Even though he did not say explicitly, he dropped subtle hints that he has the stature to become the chief minister to take on KCR for dismissing him from the state Cabinet in 2021.
KCR, at that time, was under the impression that Rajender was planning something big against him and showed the gate from the Cabinet.
Rajender later left BRS, resigned his Huzurabad Assembly seat and won it back on a BJP ticket.
However, he could not win the same seat in the 2023 Assembly elections but made his failure good by winning the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 general elections.
Even when Bandi Sanjay was the president of Telangana BJP, Rajender did his best to get into his shoes. But the party thought otherwise and brought Kishan Reddy in his place.
Two other leaders aspiring to become the Telangana BJP president are Nizamabad and Medak MPs — Arvind Dharmapuri and M Raghunandan Rao.
Though they are not the front-runners, the party is looking at their candidatures also. Arvind, the son of former state Congress chief D Srinivas and belongs to the BC community Munnuru Kapu, joined the party in 2017.
After his relentless battle with KCR’s daughter K Kavitha who was Nizamabad MP then, Arvind turned the tables against her and wrested the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket in 2019.
Though he is quite outspoken against the BRS and his former foe Kavitha, he sometimes finds it difficult to carry on with all sections within the party.
Raghunandan Rao, being an advocate, has the gift of building an effective argument on any issue while attacking the BRS or the Congress.
This apart, he won from Medak, which was once represented in Lok Sabha by no less than Indira Gandhi in 1980.
Moreover, the constituency has Gajwel and Siddipet Assembly segments, represented in the Assembly by KCR and his nephew and former minister T Harish Rao.
Raghunandan Rao joined the BJP in 2014 and reportedly has been waiting for a break ever since.
Though each of the four leaders has their own USPs, what might work to their disadvantage is that they are not original BJP leaders tempered in the RSS ideology.
A few “original” BJP leaders seem to exploit this aspect to try their luck in landing the coveted post. Former MLC N Ramachandar Rao, also an advocate is the prominent among them.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
Jun 26, 2024
Jun 26, 2024
Jun 26, 2024
Jun 26, 2024
Jun 26, 2024
Jun 25, 2024
