Following BJP State president G Kishan Reddy securing a berth in the union Cabinet, the BJP leadership is reportedly planning to hand over the responsibility of the party’s State chief post to Malkajgiri MP Etala Rajender.
With organisational elections for the positions of both the national and State president due in July, the BJP leadership has reportedly decided to relieve Kishan Reddy from the responsibility and hand over the reins of the State BJP unit to Rajender.
After considering the social equations in the state, the BJP high command decided to retain Kishan as a Cabinet minister and to give Bandi Sanjay a Minister of State (MoS) post.
BJP’s Social Equations Formula:
Considering the social equations, it is expected that if any BC leader belonging to one caste is made a minister, another BC leader from some other caste will be made the party’s state president. Since Sanjay, who is a Munnuru Kapu — part of the BC community — was inducted into the Cabinet, the party will likely pick Rajender, who belongs to Mudiraj community, as its state chief.
“Rising Sutra’ for Telangana:
The BJP, which is aiming to come to power in Telangana in next elections, is trying to attract the BC community. Even in recent Lok Sabha elections, it appears that most of the BC communities supported the BJP.
Etala Rajender contested from Malkajigiri, the largest Lok Sabha constituency in the country in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, and won with a huge majority of over 3 lakhs. However..everyone thought that this time Narendra Modi will give a chance to Etala Rajender in the union cabinet. It did not happen for various reasons. On the other hand, party newly elected MPs DK Aruna and Dharmapuri Arvind were also rumored to be given a chance in the cabinet, but Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay got that chance. As per the media reports, the party leadership is said to be now considering Etala Rajender candidature for the post of the party’s State president.
Even in the State BJP circles, leaders are discussing the issue and a few of them have confirmed that the party leadership has made up its mind to hand over the reins of the party in Telangana to Rajender.
From a Strong Left-wing Ideology to BJP:
As a youngster Etala Rajender was involved in Left-student politics full-time for many years but rarely end up on the other side of the political ideology.
Etala Rajender, who is now making waves for taking on the mighty BRS supreme K. Chandrashekhar Rao, is one such politician who has traversed from one end of the political spectrum to the other with zeal. In between, he also dabbled with business before joining the separate Statehood movement under the leadership of erstwhile Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) now BRS.
How BJP Turned around its Fortunes?:
Rajender, who joined the BJP after his expulsion from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and subsequently won a by-poll in Huzurabad in November 2021, has been rooting for a promotion within the party. He was said to have played a vital role in Bandi Sanjay losing the BJP State president post. Though he was expecting the party leadership to hand over the responsibility to him then, it favoured Kishan Reddy, as it feared that the party functionaries may not accept Rajender.
In order to mollify Rajender, he was made the Chairman of the joining committee, but he was not happy with the position as it was a decorative post with no real powers. Since Rajender won the Malkajgiri seat with a margin of over 3 lakh votes, thus making up for the double constituency loss during the Assembly elections, the party is now considering his candidature to lead the party in Telangana.
