Bandi Sanjay said Harish Rao was a very popular leader and a fine politician and invited the latter to join the BJP.
Published Jul 15, 2024 | 3:45 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 15, 2024 | 3:45 PM
BJP leader Bandi Sanjay Kumar after winning the Lok Sabha elections on 4 June, 2024. (Supplied)
Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar showering sky-high praises for former Telangana minister and MLA T Harish Rao on Sunday, 14 July, added flavours to the speculations that the distance between the BRS and the saffron party is narrowing down fast.
Bandi Sanjay, who always launched stinging attacks on the BRS and its leaders at the drop of a hat, for a change, said Harish Rao was a very popular leader and a fine politician.
He even went to the extent of saying that Harish Rao is welcome to join the BJP if he resigns from his membership to the Assembly.
“We will help him win the by-election on BJP ticket,” he said.
However, Bandi Sanjay quickly added that his statement did not mean Harish Rao had spoken to him, expressing his willingness to join the saffron party.
By then, he had managed to convey a message that the BJP was inviting the former finance minister to leave the pink party and join the ranks of the saffron party.
Bandi Sanjay also tried to clarify the social media speculation that a merger between the BRS and the BJP was on the cards, dismissing it as propaganda by the pink party and the Congress.
He said that the BRS leadership wanted to show some hope to the party leaders who were leaving the party in hordes and the Congress wanted to divert the attention of the people from its failure in honouring the guarantees it had made to the people ahead of the Assembly elections.
The BRS leaders dismissed it as utterly baseless and said they would never align with the BJP under any circumstances, let alone a merger.
Bandi Sanjay also asked Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy whether he could impose the condition that the BRS MLAs joining the Congress should first resign as legislators.
The former BJP state chief said the MLAs were not joining the BJP because the saffron party insisted that they resign first and then join the saffron party.
In this context, he said Harish Rao was welcome to join the BJP if he is willing to quit as MLA, which is being seen as a veiled invitation to him.
For quite some time now, social media has been swarming with reports of a possible entry of the BRS into the NDA and even hinted at a merger, though it is a distant possibility.
Since both the parties have been daggers drawn in the public domain and in the event of a merger, the BRS and the BJP would mix the way oil mixes with water.
There has also been speculation that the four Rajya Sabha members of the BRS — KR Suresh Reddy, Vaddiraju Ravichandra, D Damodar Rao, and B Parthasaradhi — would en mass join the BJP like the way the four TDP Rajya Sabha members — CM Ramesh, Garaikapati Rammohan Rao, Sujana Chowdary and TG Venkatesh — merged in safffron party after the TDP’s debacle in 2019 general elections in Andhra Pradesh.
The merger of BRS in BJP is highly unlikely as the pink party honchos may not like the prospect of having to remain subservient to Delhi bosses.
For a leader like K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), it might be too difficult to work under someone but joining the NDA is a different ball game altogether.
The party could still keep its identity and hope to gain from its association with the saffron party, with BRS MLC K Kavitha languishing in Delhi jail since 15 March and the Sword of Damocles hanging over KCR’s head in the phone-tapping case.
According to sources, the BRS is willing to join the NDA even though it is not very keen on a merger but the BJP has not yet given the green signal.
A group led by Bandi Sanjay does not want anything to do with the BRS, either being part of the NDA or a merger.
Bandi Sanjay carried out a fierce campaign against the BRS when it was in power, and there were instances of the Telangana police — apparently at the instructions of the then chief minister Chandrashekar Rao — harassing him no end.
On one occasion the Telangana police forcibly arrested him from his residence in Karimnagar.
BJP leaders keep saying that they do not need the BRS as the saffron party is rapidly growing in Telangana without support from any party.
At a time when the party is planning to emerge as an alternative to Congress, the question of anything to do with BRS, either taking it into the NDA orbit or accepting its merger proposal, does not arise.
BJP sources said the BRS needs the saffron party and not vice-versa.
As there are no major elections around, the BJP is expected to take it easy, similar to that in Andhra Pradesh.
After protracted deliberations, the BJP reluctantly made way for the TDP to join the NDA ahead of general elections which, in fact, had turned out to be a great blessing.
In Telangana also, the BJP might change its mind ahead of the next Assembly elections, five years from now.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil)
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