Amid speculations that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao might go in for early elections for the state assembly, the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to intensify its poll preparations in the state.
On Tuesday, senior leaders of the Telangana BJP, including Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy, BJP parliamentary board member G Laxman, BJP Telangana unit president Bandi Sanjay and others met party national president J P Nadda in New Delhi on Tuesday to chalk out the course of action in the coming days, people privy to the matter said.
The leaders also met Union home minister Amit Shah to work out the strategy in the event of KCR, as the chief minister is called, opts for early elections.
“A series of arrests by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with Delhi liquor scam, including that of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, has created ripples in the BRS camp as there is a possibility of the central agencies questioning KCR’s daughter Kavitha as well,” a BJP leader privy to the development said.
This might force the BRS chief to go in for early elections alleging witch-hunt by the Centre so as gain political mileage, he added.
The state BJP has already conducted around 11,000 street meetings across Telangana. In the next one month, the party is planning constituency-level meetings, followed by district-level and finally a state-level public meeting.
While Amit Shah would be taking part in the rally in Hyderabad on March 12, several other senior leaders, including Rajnath Singh and Smriti Irani will also take part in the district-level rallies in the coming months. “We are planning to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the state-level rally at Hyderabad in April,” Sanjay said.
Meanwhile, the BJP has decided to continue with Sanjay as the president of the party’s Telangana unit. Though an official announcement to this effect is yet to be made, BJP national general secretary and the in-charge for Telangana Tarun Chugh declared at a party meeting last week that Sanjay will continue to helm the Telangana BJP at least till 2024.
“The BJP will have its organisational elections in 2024, and till then, Sanjay will continue in the post,” he said, indicating that the Karimnagar MP would lead the party in the next assembly elections scheduled in December this year and also for the general elections scheduled in April next year.
Sanjay took over as the BJP Telangana unit president on March 11, 2020. His term is supposed to end on March 10, 2023, as per the party norms. However, the party might extend his term at least by another one year.
The BJP leader quoted above said the party’s national leadership is extremely happy with the aggressive posture being put up by Sanjay, which it feels has brought a new vigour to the party.
“His padayatra in the name of Praja Sangrama Yatra across Telangana received good support from the people and brought out his mass leader image. That is why the national leadership has decided to continue him as the party chief,” the BJP leader added.
