HYDERABAD: The Telangana BJP is experiencing internal strife, although the party has been trying to brush this under the carpet. Also, facing off against a rejuvenated Congress, it is pinning its hopes on visits, this June, by its three top leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda, to boost its leaders and cadres.
The party leaders are hoping to get the three leaders to address public meetings in at least three Parliament constituencies as part of the BJP’s month-long Mahajan Sampark Abhiyan.
Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar has already mentioned that, in addition to having public meetings with at least 5,000 people each from 119 Assembly constituencies this month, they would request Modi, Shah and Nadda to find time to address larger meetings in three Lok Sabha constituencies.
The party feels that it needs a few booster shots of energy and enthusiasm, as it gears up for the coming Assembly elections, likely in November this year. There has been despondence in the party’s rank and file, who, according to party sources, are unable to understand what is happening within the senior leadership with reports of rifts, and some leaders making comments that are being understood as the party flapping in the wind and losing direction.
There is also concern among the state leadership, as senior leaders are feeling the pressure to explain the Congress charge that BJP and BRS have come to an understanding to keep off one another — especially, with Congress asking why no action was taken against BRS MLC K. Kavitha in the Delhi liquor scam case.
“This tactic by the Congress appears to be working well,” one party leader admitted, adding that BJP leaders may have jumped the gun when they began making public pronouncements that Kavitha would be arrested soon in the case once her alleged role in the scam came to light during ED investigations.
This aspect, along with apparent dissension by senior leaders amid rumours doing the rounds that some of them would leave the BJP for Congress, is slowly beginning to hurt the party, a senior BJP leader said.
