Hyderabad: Rifts in the Telangana BJP appear to show no signs of being bridged, with party leaders still going at each other, hinting at least obliquely at a BRS-sponsored disruptive role, on the eve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Warangal on Saturday.
Warning of such a possibility was Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who two days ago was replaced as state party president by Union minister G. Kishan Reddy. Sanjay, who held a meeting with party leaders and workers from Hanamkonda on Friday, warned of “paid artistes who will have crowds chant their ‘success’.”
Sanjay said, “There are some BRS leaders who are getting paid artistes to cheer them and gain publicity as successful leaders. We should all be wary of such people,” he told the BJP workers.
While Sanjay did not name anyone, party sources indicated that his words were most likely in reference to Huzurabad MLA Etala Rajendar who was formerly in the BRS and had been at loggerheads with him. Rajendar is being viewed by the Sanjay camp as the reason behind his being replaced as state party president.
Sanjay told the meeting that ‘BRS folks’ were planning to have some thousand ‘paid artistes’ at Modi’s public meeting to cheer their leader, and it is up to the BJP workers that their plans do not succeed.
“Modi is a great leader who strives continuously for the welfare of the people and he is visiting three states in one day and address public meetings. We should make sure that Saturday’s meeting in Warangal is a grant success and demonstrate that the BJP is a potent force in the state,” Sanjay said.
In Huzurabad, Rajendar held a meeting with party leaders from Karimnagar district and called on them to ensure that Modi’s meeting turns into a big success and urged party leaders and workers to attend the meeting in large numbers.
State BJP president G. Kishan Reddy, who reached Warangal on Friday morning and prayed at the Bhadrakali temple, too got busy later meeting party leaders and workers and stressed on the importance of a good show of strength at the public meeting. “Do not believe the poisonous campaign against the BJP by other parties who are worried about their fate in the coming elections. Congress and the BRS are in fact one and have in the past worked together,” he said.
