Rama Krishna Sangem
Union Coal Minister G Kishan Reddy seems to be continuing as Telangana BJP president for some more time – maybe for some more weeks or even months. BJP top brass in Delhi appears to continue status quo for an indefinite time, due to multiple reasons. This delay in having a new full-fledged elected president of Telangana unit is a result of many factors – some are of national and others are of state level. On the whole, a new state president is unlikely to be named anytime soon.
BJP has begun the process of organisational elections six months ago. First they started membership enrollment and then the election of lower level committees. As per their internal constitution of BJP, at least half of district level committees have to be elected before a state unit goes to elections and half of state committees to be formed before the national president is elected. Going by that criteria, more than half of district committees (of the total 36) have been formed or finalized in Telangana.
And more than half of state committees have been formed or finalized in the country too. So, technically, there is no hurdle for election of the national president – in place of union minister and the current president of JP Nadda. So is the case with Kishan Reddy in Telangana. Rajya Sabha MP Dr K Laxman has been appointed as the returning officer for the national president election while former MLA Yendala Laxinarayana the returning officer for Telangana unit.
Narendra Modi led NDA government has come to power at the Centre for a third term exactly a year ago – last May, 2024. Since then, both Nadda and Kishan Reddy, who are union ministers, are continuing as the party chiefs at the national and state levels as interim arrangement, with full powers. The abnormal delay in choosing elected presidents for the party posts indicates to bigger problem at the national and state levels. One major reason is absence of clarity on their successors.
Multiple reasons for delay:
Here I will confine to the issue of delay in appointing a new president to Telangana unit. Initially, Malkajgiri MP and former minister Etela Rajender and former MLC N Ramachander Rao appeared to be the front-runners for the this post. Of course, there are another half dozen strong contenders to the post. BJP’s in charge general secretary Sunil Bansal and organizational in charge Chandrasekhar Ji along with teams of party observers had multiple rounds of talks with the seniors on the issue.
Rajender topped the probables list of new entrants in BJP while Ramachander figured top on the list of insiders. Other contenders to the post include MPs Aravind Dharmapuri, Raghunandan Rao and DK Aruna and former MLA Chintala Ramachandra Reddy. Another MP and union minister of state for home Bandi Sanjay was not in the race for the party post initially. But later, he too developed interest in the post, if the PM and his boss Amit Shah permit.
Sanjay is not keen on continuing in the job of MoS Home as the portfolio is headed by a heavy weight Amit Shah himself. Being a former state president, Sanjay prefers to be BJP president of Telangana. Both Sanjay and Rajender are from the combined Karimnagar district and belong to BC communities – Munnur Kapus and Mudiraj – but have no cordial ties. In fact, Sanjay prefers anyone other than Rajender as the state party chief. Sanjay prefers someone from within the BJP old guards.
This lack of consensus has proved to be a problem to the central leadership. At a time – in February and March – Shah and Bansal have almost picked Rajender for the party post. Moreover, Kishan Reddy was among the favourites for the national president post. But, he prefers to be in the union cabinet only. The India-Pakistan conflict and subsequent developments have taken the focus of PM Modi and Shah off from the organizational polls.
Now there is a talk that the organizational elections will be revived in June-July. Otherwise, they maybe completed only after Bihar assembly elections, in October-November. Likewise, Kishan Reddy too will be continued till after the local bodies’ and GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) elections. Local polls are to be held in July while GHMC will go to elections in November-December. Meanwhile, Kishan Reddy has begun taking active role as Telangana BJP president.
