Union minister Kishan Reddy likely to be Telangana BJP chief; Bandi Sanjay may get Cabinet berth

The leadership expects that the revamped state units would be able to successfully lead the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, as they would, by then, have already fought the Assembly polls.

Telangana BJP crisis: It is lateral entrants vs those steeped in RSS ideology

Dealing with discontent

The BJP is understood to have found in Kishan Reddy an answer also to the simmering discontent in the party’s state unit against Bandi Sanjay’s leadership.

Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender, who has been ill at ease with the BJP state leadership for rejecting his suggestion about the strategy that has to be adopted to take on the BRS in the elections, has been subtly putting pressure on the party to replace Bandi Sanjay.

By launching a crusade against Bandi Sanjay, the MLA was trying to imply that he would be a better choice to lead the party as he has the necessary motivation to defeat KCR.

Occasionally, he subtly projected himself as the only leader who could fight KCR. He even expressed willingness to contest against the BRS supremo from Gajwel, the latter’s home constituency.

Over the past few days, the BJP’s top has held meeting with Eatala Rajender as well as Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy separately, and with Bandi Sanjay to sort matters out — but apparently not successfully.

Lateral entrants such as Eatala, who arrived from the BRS, and Rajagopal Reddy, who made his way to the saffron fold from the Congress, have been at loggerheads with oldtimers such as Bandi Sanjay who are steeped in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideology.

Also read: Eatala’s wife says BRS MLC offered ₹20 crore ‘supari’ to kill him

Strong credentials

The main reason that seemed to have weighed in favour of Kishan Reddy is that he is a dyed-in-the-wool BJP leader, wedded to the RSS ideology.

He has been loyal to the party with undisputable credentials. He was elected to the Assembly three times —  in 2009, 2004, and 2014 — but lost to the BRS in 2018. He was, however, elected to Lok Sabha from Secunderabad in the 2019 general elections.

Kishan Reddy began his political career as a youth leader of the Janata Party in 1977 and joined the BJP in 1980. He served as the president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha from 2002 to 2005 and as the state president of the BJP in the undivided Andhra Pradesh from 2010 to 2014.

He was the minister of state for home affairs from 2019 to 2021. He was appointed as the Union minister for tourism, culture, and the development of the northeastern region in July 2021.

As he belongs to the dominant Reddy community, the party leadership might have seen in him a soldier who could fight the Congress as well, as the grand old party has several leaders from the community.

Also read: Telangana BJP chief Bandi summoned to Delhi

Detractors doubt Reddy’s clout

But Kishan Redy’s detractors maintain that though he is a Reddy leader, he does not have fire in the belly to take on Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy or other Reddy leaders, or even KCR, who represents the Velama community, in the electoral battlefield.

But given the options available to the party leadership, Kishan Reddy seemed to have emerged as the best possible candidate to lead the party.

As Kishan Reddy is a leader who could not think beyond his Assembly segment of Ameberpet or his Lok Sabha constituency of Secunderabad, there are doubts about whether he would be able to face his political rivals in the rest of the state.

Kishan Reddy’s critics also say that he is not savvy enough to get along with others and that he wears his Reddy pride on his sleeve more often than not.

It remains to be seen how the party’s inclination to appoint Kishan Reddy as president of Telangana BJP would go down with the dissident leaders like Rajender and Rajagopal Reddy, who have been subtly hinting that the doors are open for them to join the Congress if the BJP made decisions that might not be to their liking.