BJP leader K Laxman suggested the new Telangana president may be appointed in April, with no urgency. Currently, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy leads the party, having secured two MLC election wins
Published Mar 30, 2025 | 1:53 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 30, 2025 | 1:53 PM
New Telangana BJP President likely to be appointed by end of April (Wikimedia)
Synopsis: The delay in appointing a new Telangana BJP president is causing frustration among aspirants. While the national leadership remains relaxed, the decision may come after a new national president is appointed. Union Minister G Kishan Reddy currently leads, and despite several potential candidates, party sources suggest the choice could be unexpected
The inordinate delay in appointing a new president for the BJP Telangana unit is getting on to the nerves of the aspirants. Though the appointment is long overdue, the party’s national leadership is taking it easy.
According to sources, the party may get around to the task only after a new national president is appointed in the place of JP Nadda. “I don’t know how long it will take and who will be the president. But it may not happen before a national president is appointed,” a senior Telangana BJP leader said.
Party Rajya Sabha member and senior leader K Laxman said in Delhi recently that the appointment may happen in April, indicating that the party was not in a tearing hurry. One leader of the party said that though a new president has to be appointed, there is no hurry. At the moment, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy is leading the party. The party has won two of the three MLC elections held recently in Telangana under his leadership.
One senior journalist, who did not want to be named, said: “The national leadership is according priority to broad base the presence of the party in the state, as it has set itself the goal of capturing power in the next elections. It is working silently and unobtrusively in the rural areas of the state. Lending a helping hand in spreading the Hindu ideology is the RSS, which has recently increased the number of its shakhas by 392, taking the total to 3,800. The RSS provides the endoskeleton for the party to develop on.”
Though names of MPs like Eatala Rajender, Dharmapuri Arvind, DK Aruna, M Raghunandan Rao, and former MLC N Ramchander Rao have been doing the rounds, there seems to be no finality as to who would finally be picked for the coveted post.
“In BJP, there is no dearth of surprises. The party might pick a candidate who is least expected for the post. For instance, the party had picked Dr. Mohan Yadav as the new Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on 11 December, 2023. No one had expected Dr. Yadav, a three-time MLA from Ujjain South, would become the chief minister,” the BJP leader said, adding that the BJP national leadership can spring a surprise in Telangana too.
Though he did not specifically name anyone, the immediate name that pops into one’s mind is the firebrand leader of the party—Madhavi Latha, who went down fighting against Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The party, according to indications, might have a new national president before long, as it is also overdue. The election of the new president, initially planned for January, was postponed due to the Delhi Assembly elections and pending organisational polls in several state units.
According to sources, the Prime Minister had already held talks with RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat recently on who should lead the party at the national level. Though it is not clear who it would be, it would be done sooner than later, paving the way for the appointment of a new president of Telangana unit.
“I do not know when it will happen, but I hope it would be done before long,” the BJP leader said.
The BJP is understood to announce its new president at the national council meeting scheduled in Bengaluru on 18 April. That means the party may not take any decision on who should be the new president of Telangana till the national council meeting is over.
Among the leaders who are under consideration to lead the Telangana unit of the party is Malkajgiri MP Eatala Rajender. A former minister in the erstwhile BRS government, Rajender brings with him his vast experience as a minister and also in leading the party. He joined the BJP after the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao dismissed him from his cabinet for allegedly planning “something big” against him.
The party sources say that he is in the good books of Union Minister Amit Shah. He belongs to one of the populous castes among the BCs, Mudiraj, which might work in his favour, as the BJP is now trying to woo the BCs.
The party is also considering the candidature of Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, who is known for his fiery attacks on the Congress and mainly the BRS. A Munnuru Kapu, another numerically strong caste among the BCs, Arvind has good contacts with RSS leaders too.
According to sources, the party is taking a hard look at Peyal Shankar, legislator from Adilabad, to step into Kishan Reddy’s shoes and take the reins of the party. A leader with strong bonding with the workers at the ground level, the party is also reportedly considering his candidature. Shankar is known for his political acumen to deal with any problems that might arise in his constituency due to maladjustment among the party workers. He is also a BC leader, hailing from Perika caste.
Though Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar has said several times that he was not in the race for the post of president of Telangana unit of the party, one cannot rule him out, as he might become the surprise choice of the party. This is on account of the fact that his leadership skills have already been tested in Hyderabad at the time of the GHMC elections and how he had steered the party from practically nothing to winning 48 seats in the 2020 elections.
In the earlier house for which elections were held in 2016, the BJP won only four seats. Sanjay is popular among the youth for his unique style of taking the BRS and the Congress apart and also his scathing attacks on MIM, which had infused life into the saffron ranks. He is also a BC, belonging to munnuru kapu cast.
(Edited by Ananya Rao)
