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BJP brass to hold meet with 2 Telangana leaders amid internal rumblings
Former minister and BJP MLA from Huzurabad, Eatala Rajender, and former MLA from Munugode, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who have been keeping away from party activities from some time, left for New Delhi following a call from party president J P Nadda.
The central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday summoned two party leaders from Telangana for talks in the wake of reports that they might soon shift their loyalties to the Congress, people familiar with the matter said.
Former minister and BJP MLA from Huzurabad, Eatala Rajender, and former MLA from Munugode, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who have been keeping away from party activities from some time, left for New Delhi following a call from party president J P Nadda.
The leadership also called Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy to New Delhi, who rushed to the national capital.
Nadda is expected to meet with the two disgruntled leaders on Sunday morning, a party leader privy to the development said, seeking anonymity. The high command has entrusted Kishan Reddy the task of negotiating with Rajender and Rajagopal Reddy and convincing them to stay back in the party, he added.
Ever since the BJP received a drubbing in the assembly elections in neighbouring Karnataka, the party in Telangana has been facing a silent revolt from leaders, including Rajender and Rajagopal Reddy, who have been opposing the leadership of state BJP president Bandi Sanjay.
“They have complained to the high command a couple of times in the recent past that Sanjay has not been giving due importance to them and not taking them into confidence while taking up various party programmes,” the party leader said.
Rajender, who was given the responsibility of luring potential leaders from various parties into the BJP, has failed in the task and he blamed it on Sanjay. Rajender held discussions with former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former state minister from Mahabubnagar Jupally Krishna Rao, both of whom had resigned from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi last month, to bring them into the BJP.
“They put forth certain conditions to join the BJP, such as party tickets to their followers for the assembly elections in their respective districts, but Sanjay rejected their demands,” the party leader said. “As a result, Srinivas Reddy and Krishna Rao have decided to join the Congress.”
On the other hand, Rajagopal Reddy has been under pressure from elder brother Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, a Congress MP from Bhongir, to return to the grand old party.
There is also a talk that a few other leaders, such as former Chevella MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy and former minister D K Aruna, might also shift loyalties to the Congress ahead of the next assembly elections.
Under these circumstances, the BJP high command swung into action to prevent an exodus of leaders by holding discussions with them. “I have not taken any decision yet on changing the party. As of now, I am still with the BJP. I will explain everything to the party high command,” Rajagopal Reddy told reporters in Hyderabad before leaving for New Delhi.
The BJP leadership should not give any scope for apprehensions among the people that it has been going soft towards the ruling BRS, he said. “There is definitely some change in the people’s thinking towards the Congress after the Karnataka elections,” Rajagopal Reddy said.
After holding talks with the sulking rebels, Nadda will fly to Telangana to address a rally at Nagakurnool on Sunday evening as part of Mahajan Sampark Abhiyan programme. “He would also meet key leaders of the party at Novotel Hotel at Shamshabad airport to take stock of the situation in Telangana,” an official note from the party said.
