E-Paper
Have no plans of switching party: Telangana BJP MLA Eatala Rajender
Eatala Rajender said the BJP had given him the political platform when he was shunted out of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi
Hyderabad
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker from Telangana and former minister Eatala Rajender on Tuesday asserted that he will stay back in the party and has no plans of shifting to any other party.
Rajender was in New Delhi on Saturday and Sunday to hold talks with the BJP top brass, including party president J P Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah, amidst speculations that he was planning to shift loyalties to the Congress.
“We cannot change parties so easily as changing our clothes. I have never thought of quitting the BJP to join any other party,” he told reporters at his residence in Hyderabad.
Rajender, however, admitted that there were some issues with the party leadership in Telangana. “But it is natural that such differences are there in any political party. I have not complained to the high command against any individual personally. In fact, I did not go to Delhi on my own, but only on receiving a call from the national leadership,” he said.
The former minister, who had been staying away from the party activities for quite some time, said the BJP had given him the political platform when he was shunted out of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). “I have been silently working for the party in my constituency. I am confident that the BJP will come to power in the next assembly elections,” he said.
Stating that the BJP has a strong cadre base and leadership in Telangana, Rajender said the party has to grow from the grassroots level to gain power. “We need to work out our strategies from bottom to top,” he added.
Meanwhile, the BJP high command summoned state BJP president Bandi Sanjay to New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the measures to set the party in order, in the wake of reports that some seniors are staying away from the party activities.
While the party high command managed to pacify Rajender, another senior leader and ex-MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy told the party leadership that he has been under pressure from his followers to join the Congress.
The party leadership is expected to take some crucial decisions in the next few days to set the house in order, a Telangana BJP leader privy to the development said.
