Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Andhra Pradesh minister Kanna Lakshminarayana on Thursday resigned from the primary membership of the party in protest against the alleged witch-hunt by state BJP president Somu Veerraju.
In a letter addressed to BJP national president J P Nadda, Lakshminarayana, who is also the party’s national executive member, said he was quitting the party on personal grounds and compulsions.
Speaking to reporters at Guntur, the BJP leader said he had all respect and admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the other top BJP leaders, but he was disgusted with the way Veerraju was running the Andhra unit of the BJP like his personal fiefdom.
The 67-year-old leader, who also headed the state BJP between May 2018 and August 2020 before he was replaced by Veerraju, said he had been completely sidelined in the party and had not been taken into confidence in taking any decision.
Lakshminarayana announced that he would discuss with his followers and take a decision on his future course of action. A party leader familiar with the development said he is expected to join the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) headed by former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
A six-time MLA of the Congress– four times from Pedakurapadu assembly constituency and one time from Guntur (West) assembly constituency– Lakshminarayana served as a minister in various governments between 1991 and 2014. He defected to the BJP after losing the 2014 assembly elections.
The former BJP president said he had never aspired for any posts or positions in the party. “I had worked with five chief ministers in the past and had held several positions. After joining the BJP, I had made every effort to run the party as a single unit taking everybody into confidence. But the party plunged into crisis after Veerraju took over as the state BJP chief,” he said.
Though Veerraju did not immediately react to the resignation of Lakshminarayana, another senior leader and Rajya Sabha member G V L Narasimha Rao strongly denied the allegations of the former BJP president.
“Lakshminarayana had been given due respect in the party and he had been made the state BJP president and national executive committee member. What more respect can a person, who joined the party only in 2014, expect?” he asked.
Rao said the allegations made by Lakshminarayana against Veerraju were malicious and politically motivated. “The BJP chief took every decision only after consulting the national party leadership,” he said.
