Kishan In, Bandi Out as BJP Readies for TS Polls

Hyderabad: The Telangana BJP, with just months to go before the Assembly elections, got a new party president in Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, the Lok Sabha member from Secunderabad. Also finding a seat at the big table was Huzurabad MLA Etala Rajendar who was appointed the party’s campaign committee chairman.

In a day of swift developments, which were in the coming for several weeks, incumbent state party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar submitted his resignation, paving the way for Kishan Reddy to take over. It is not clear what when Kishan Reddy will take charge. All attempts to elicit a reaction from him were met with silence though reporters bombarded him with questions on the sidelines of an event here.

This will be Kishan Reddy’s third stint as BJP state president. He was the last state party president of undivided Andhra Pradesh and the first party chief in Telangana.

Sanjay’s resignation came soon after he met BJP president J.P. Nadda and senior leaders including general secretaries Sunil Bansal and B.L. Santosh in New Delhi. The party announced Kishan Reddy’s appointment in the afternoon.  

Sanjay’s removal was not surprising given the level of dissatisfaction and near dissidence within its ranks, at least from a small set of party leaders who have repeatedly made their displeasure clear at the way they were being either treated or sidelined.

Neither was appointing Rajendar the party campaign committee chief, indications of which started coming after he along with Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy was called to Delhi in June last week for discussions with Nadda, and Union home minister Amit Shah.

While some of Sanjay’s supporters rallied behind him earlier in the day, most party leaders fell in line and issued statements expressing support to Kishan Reddy after the announcements came. Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, senior leader Vijayashanti and several others said the party will work unitedly with Kishan Reddy. Arvind predicted that under Kishan Reddy, the Telangana BJP was certain to win the Assembly elections.