BJP Seniors Don't Apply for Assembly Poll Tickets

HYDERABAD: Although over 6,000 BJP activists and a handful of leaders applied for tickets to the upcoming Assembly elections, several leaders, including those who are expected to be in the fray for the state polls, stayed put.

On the other hand, the BJP is currently changing tack, stating that another process was underway for selecting party candidates, with the Sangh Parivar having a significant say, making the application process infructuous. Six thousand applicants may have wasted their time, money and effort.

Those who did not apply include state party president G. Kishan Reddy, Karimnagar, Adilabad and Nizamabad MPs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Soyam Bapu Rao and Arvind Dharmapuri, Rajya Sabha member Dr K. Laxman, former MLAs N.V.S.S. Prabhakar (Uppal), and party vice-president D.K. Aruna (Gadwal).

Also not on the list of applicants were Goshamahal MLA D. Raja Singh, suspended by the party and Huzurabad legislator Etala Rajendar, its state election management committee chairman.

Some party leaders said that many of these leaders were not enthusiastic about contesting the Assembly polls as the BJP was badly trailing the Congress in popular perception as an alternative to the BRS.

“These are senior leaders who are well known and are looked up to by many in the party. Them not applying is not sending a good signal to the rest of the party. If the high command mandates that they should contest the Parliament elections, they could always withdraw from the Assembly race,” a senior leader said.

This makes it appear that there are two tiers in the BJP — one that has to fight for a place in the candidates’ list and another that is privileged — though the leaders who did not apply won different elections earlier and will be obvious choices as candidates, the party leader said.

Former MP A.P. Jithender Reddy (Mahbubngar), former MLC N. Ramchander Rao (Malkajgiri), Dubbak MLA M. Raghunandan Rao, party state vice-president G. Manohar Reddy (LB Nagar), and party spokesperson N.V. Subhash (Khairatabad) are among well-known names who applied for tickets.

Meanwhile, the state BJP is understood to have made progress in shortlisting potential candidates, with the Sangh Parivar expected to have a significant say.

The BJP has tasked four senior leaders holding significant positions in the state unit to provide their own list of three potential candidate names from each constituency. It also asked its Sangh Parivar colleagues to put together a list of 119 names independently.

The plan, according to knowledgeable sources, was to see if common names pop up and if these names would make it to the top three options, would be sent to the party's high command. If a name proposed by the Sangh Parivar matches the name for a particular constituency, the party high command would be recommended to consider that name.

It was learnt that the four leaders’ lists had been submitted to the party leadership while inputs were awaited from the Sangh Parivar. This process, according to sources, was on before the party announced that it would accept applications from aspirants who lined up at the BJP state headquarters and submitted their applications. The BJP received 6,003 applications.

While it is expected that most of the applicants do not stand a chance, the party claimed that it opened the process to give everyone a chance to throw their hats into the ring. According to sources, there was some discussion and debate on whether the collection of applications should be taken up. Amid misgivings, a decision was taken to go ahead with this plan.