Differences Crop Up Among BJP MLAs Over Selection of Legislature Party Leader

Adilabad: Differences cropped up among the BJP MLAs from the erstwhile Adilabad district over selection of the party’s legislature party leader.

Adilabad MLA Payal Shankar and Nirmal MLA Aleti Maheshwar Reddy are aspiring for the post. They are among the four BJP MLAs elected from the erstwhile Adilabad district in the recent assembly polls.

The BC MLAs and Reddy community MLAs of the BJP are mounting pressure on the state party president Kishan Reddy to select the BLP leader without further delay.

News is that BJP MLAs made a futile effort by submitting a letter with their signatures requesting the Speaker to consider Aleti Maheshwar Reddy as the BLP leader. The speaker told the BJP MLAs that only the party president can write a letter on his letterhead proposing a party MLA for the BLP leader post.

News is that Aleti Maheshwar Reddy has been lobbying with the party high command for the BLP leader post.

Raja Singh and Maheshwar Reddy are the seniors among the eight elected BJP MLAs while the six others are first-time MLAs.

A senior BJP leader said the state party is not in a position to decide who should be the BLP leader and hence it keeps postponing the matter even as the assembly’s budget session is in progress.

Of the eight BJP MLAs, three are BCs, one Vyshya, three Reddys and one Velamma. Raja Singh, Ramarao Patel and Payal Shankar are from the BC segment.

Some BJP leaders claim that the party's high command had announced that a BC candidate would be made the CM if the BJP wins power in Telangana. “The party can at least make a BC as BLP leader,” they reasoned.

Meanwhile, sitting Adilabad BJP MP Soyam Bapu Rao met Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday and requested him to consider his name for the Adilabad MP seat. He claims to have got a positive response from Shah.

A BJP leader said if the BLP leader post goes to an MLA from the Reddy community, the deputy floor leader post would be given to one of the BC MLAs.