Hyderabad: With the first ever victory of four Lok Sabha seats in the state, the BJP state leadership and cadre hopes that one among the four elected MPs will be inducted in his Cabinet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the 2014 elections the BJP won three seats in the combined state of Andhra Pradesh; Mr Bandaru Dattatreya who won the Secunderabad seat was taken into Modi’s Cabinet in November 2014. Later, he resigned from the Cabinet on the directions from the party high command.
With the unprecedented victory of four seats, the BJP state leadership is of the view that the party high command and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will certainly give representation to Telangana to strengthen its base in the southern states.
Since the formation of Telangana state, BJP leaders and cadres have been a frustrated lot as the party could not make any significant dent in the elections held after 2014 for local bodies, including the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, and also the December 2018 Assembly elections, where it got just one seat.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the former BJP state president and three-time MLA G. Kishan Reddy, former MLA Soyam Bapu Rao, Aravind Dharmapuri and Bandi Sanjay Kumar won the Secunderabad, Adilabad, Nizamabad, and Karimnagar Lok Sabha seats respectively. Sources in the party said that all four MPs are lobbying to get a Cabinet berth.
Sources said Mr Kishan Reddy was the senior among the four, has served as party president in the combined state of AP and hence, was likely to get a berth. But Mr Arvind Dharmapuri cannot be ruled out as he defeated the daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrase-khar Rao and has developed good relations in the party at the Delhi-level in the past two years.
Sources said that Mr Soyam Bapu Rao is confident of a berth as he hails from the Adivasi community and won the seat with a huge margin.
