Surging from a modest 7% to a commanding 14% in the transition from the 2018 to the 2023 assembly elections, Telangana’s BJP now sets its sights on harnessing this momentum for an even stronger showing in the upcoming general elections.
The BJP has kept a hawkish eye on leaders from the main opposition party in Telangana – the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) – in a bid to poach them into contesting on its behalf in the upcoming parliamentary elections from the state.
It announced a ticket to B.B. Patil, the sitting BRS MP from Zaheerabad, overnight after the BRS had confirmed his candidature from the same constituency.
As soon as he resigned from the primary membership of the BRS, the BJP rolled out the red carpet for him.
In the same way, the BJP announced the candidature of Bharat Prasad from the Nagarkurnool (SC reserved) constituency within a couple of days of his father and sitting MP from the constituency P. Ramulu tendering his resignation from the BRS. Ramulu was keen on handing over the mantle to his son.
On Sunday, two former MPs of the BRS, Ajmeera Sitaram Naik (Mahbubabad) and Godam Nagesh (Adilabad), and two former MLAs, Jalagam Venkat Rao (Kothagudem) and S. Saidi Reddy (Huzurnagar), joined the BJP in New Delhi.
G. Srinivas, a BRS candidate who unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary elections from Peddapalli in 2009, also joined the BJP on the occasion. All of them were likely to get tickets, sources said.
The defections by BRS leaders had rattled its leadership at a time when the party was having a tough time finding strong candidates to contest the coming elections in the backdrop of its defeat in the assembly elections three months ago.
Senior leaders like former minister T. Harish Rao swung into action and contacted former BRS MLA Aroori Ramesh in a bid to convince him after he threatened to walk out and contest from Warangal (SC reserved) on a BJP ticket.
Rao also called up half a dozen corporators of the Warangal municipal corporation to stop them from switching over to the Congress when they had declared their intentions.
At a lower level, the BRS leaders who had no stakes in the elections went with the wind in favour of the Congress.
The BJP has engineered the defections, mainly targeting BRS leaders who are potential election material. The party has four MPs and hopes to add two more to the tally realistically, though on record, its leaders claimed they targeted winning ten out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.
BJP state secretary S. Prakash Reddy said the party’s immediate goal was to overtake the BRS in terms of numbers to take the second spot behind the ruling Congress.
This will stand the BJP in good stead to assume power in the 2028 assembly elections, he said, adding that the idea was to erase the BRS from the political spectrum by 2028.
Senior BRS leader and former chairman of the state planning board B. Vinod Kumar admitted that the BJP was trying to “devour” the BRS. He said the BJP was playing the snake-and-ladder game but warned that the BRS will climb up the ladder again if it went down.
Vinod Kumar said that half of the BJP’s candidates, including its well known faces like former minister Eatala Rajender, were from the BRS.
The BJP won eight assembly seats recently, up from just one in the 2018 polls, and also improved its vote share from 7% to 14% during the five-year period. The party aims to consolidate on these gains with an improved performance in the coming elections.
Apart from B.B. Patil and Bharat Prasad, others whose candidature was announced previously are Union tourism minister G. Kishan Reddy (Secunderabad), D. Arvind (Nizamabad) and Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Karimnagar), all of whom are sitting MPs; as well as Madhavi Latha (Hyderabad), Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella), Boora Narsaiah Goud (Bhongir) and Eatala Rajender (Malkajgiri).
Among the latest entrants, ex-MPs Sitaram Naik and Godam Nagesh were tipped to retain their constituencies, Mahbubabad and Adilabad respectively.
But Jalagam Venkat Rao expected a ticket from Khammam, Saidi Reddy from Nalgonda and G. Srinivas from Peddapalli. That leaves decision-making to be completed for Warangal, Medak and Mahbubnagar, where there is stiff competition for selection between former minister D.K. Aruna and ex-MP A.P. Jitender Reddy.
Interestingly, BJP discard and noted educationist Malka Komaraiah has caught the attention of the BRS as a potential contestant from Malkajgiri, where the former party has fielded Eatala Rajender.
The BRS has so far announced only five candidates amidst the spate of desertions and unwillingness of some of its leaders to enter the poll fray. Among the latter are the sitting MP of Chevella G. Ranjeet Reddy and strongman C. Malla Reddy’s son Bhadra Reddy.
The government had recently pulled down a college building and road infrastructure constructed by Malla Reddy’s son-in-law and MLA, Rajasekhar Reddy, for various permissions violations.
Otherwise, Malla Reddy, a former minister who runs a chain of professional colleges as well as a huge health city, made a strong pitch for his son Bhadra Reddy’s candidature on behalf of the BRS from Malkajgiri.
After the demolition, Malla Reddy rushed to the government with a request to join the Congress. He assured Congress leaders that he would mobilise a crowd of one lakh for his joining ceremony.
On the other hand, sitting MP P. Ramulu quit the BRS and joined the BJP as his request for the elevation of his son Bharat Prasad as chairman of the Nagarkurnool zilla parishad was turned down by BRS president and former Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
Ramulu and Patil’s resignations from the BRS had a deep impact on the party’s prospects as the two constituencies were considered strong bets for it in the parliamentary elections.
The BJP accommodated Bharat Prasad in Nagarkurnool at the expense of Shruti, daughter of former party president Bangaru Laxman, who was its candidate in the last election.
The election from Nagarkurnool has assumed significance this time following an alliance between the BRS and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BRS has conceded the seat to BSP state president and former Indian Police Service officer R.S. Praveen Kumar.
After leaving the seat to the BSP and announcing candidates in five other constituencies, the BRS is waiting for rival parties to release their lists in the hope of discards coming its way to join the battle lines.
The BRS candidates so far are B. Vinod Kumar (Karimnagar); sitting MPs Nama Nageswara Rao (Khammam), M. Kavitha (Mahbubabad) and M. Srinivas Reddy (Mahbubnagar); and former minister Koppula Easwar (Peddapalli).
Another sitting MP, N. Venkatesh (Peddapalli), joined the Congress earlier but has not figured in the first list of four candidates released by the party.
Chandrashekar Rao’s daughter, Kavitha, who had lost the previous election from Nizamabad, is a doubtful starter as the family had reportedly decided to stay away from fielding her this time around. #hydkhabar
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