Telangana BJP leaders in trouble for meeting KTR

Hyderabad: The BJP central leadership took serious note of a delegation of state party leaders meeting TRS working president K.T. Rama Rao with a request to not field a candidate for the GHMC Lingojiguda division byelection.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of BJP corporator-elect Akula Ramesh Goud. The state BJP has decided to field his son Akhil Goud. A delegation led by N. Ramchander Rao, who recently lost the Legislative Council polls, met Rama Rao at the latter’s residence on Friday and put forth the proposal which the TRS leader immediately agreed to.

Party sources said the development did not go down well with the central leadership which is actively considering issuing showcause notices to the BJP leaders including Ramchander Rao involved in the exercise. “We were not consulted before they met KTR,” a central BJP leader who is involved in Telangana party affairs told this correspondent.

The party was of the view that such meetings would leave an impression among the people that the BJP had adopted a blow-hot-blow-cold approach towards the ruling dispensation. The BJP leaders going to Rama Rao the day before the Nagarjunasagar bypoll also irked the central leadership, sources added.

“We don’t have any alliance nor will we have any tacit understanding with any political force in Telangana,” the central leader pointed out. On the party’s request to the TRS to not field any candidate on sympathetic grounds, he said that going by the same logic the BJP should not have contested the Dubbak or the Nagarjunasagar bypolls which were held due to the death of incumbent legislators.

The BJP central leadership also took note of group rivalries growing in the state BJP unit and its leaders not taking the Nagarjunasagar bypoll with all seriousness. A recent meeting where a few BJP leaders discussd countering state unit president Bandi Sanjay on some of his decisions also went to the notice of the central leadership.

The leadership is studying if there is a split between the dominant and emerging castes at the state level and will address the issue before things go out of hands, sources added. “The Nagarjunasagar bypoll is a thing of the past now. We will ensure such mishandling is not repeated,” said the central leader.

Meanwhile Ramchander Rao told Deccan Chronicle that he had no information about the central leadership taking serious note of his meeting with Rama Rao. “Our meeting was in the knowledge of and with the approval of the party,” he said. Asked if the central leaders overseeing the state affairs were consulted, he said they may not be aware of the development.