The Bharatiya Janata Party’s central leadership has taken a risky gamble in the run up to the crucial Assembly polls in Telangana by replacing State unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar with Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy and appointing Huzurabad MLA Eatela Rajender as the chairman of the Election Management Committee.
In a bid to diffuse the frayed tempers in the party with dissident voices finding echo repeatedly in the last few weeks, the BJP leadership brought in Mr. Kishan Reddy, a soft spoken and low profile leader and rooted deeply in the Sangh thought process and acceptable to all sections in the party. This will be second stint for Mr. Reddy, who has the solid backing of the Sangh Parivar. He was the State unit president from 2010-14 in undivided Andhra Pradesh and continued in the same position in 2014-16. He also was the BJP Legislature Party leader from 2016-18.
The unceremonious dumping of Karimnagar Member of Parliament Bandi Sanjay as the president is bound to disappoint a larger section of the party cadres, particularly the youth, which had been swayed by his aggressive posturing and taking the hardline Hindutva line.
