Former Union minister and senior BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya vowed to campaign for party candidate G. Kishan Reddy in the Secunderabad parliamentary constituency and in rest of Telangana to ensure maximum victories and further strengthen the party at the grassroot level.

Dismissing reports of his quitting the party on being denied a chance to contest again, Mr. Dattatreya said he has always been a disciplined party worker and had worked according to the leadership wishes. “I was a sitting MP so I did seek a renomination but now my wholehearted support is for Mr. Kishan Reddy and I am confident he will win. The party will revive itself and fare much better than the Assembly polls,” he claimed, at a press conference on Friday.

The BJP leader said he had taken both “felicitations and insults” in his stride in his long political career without getting carried away. “The party has been asking me to contest from 1984 onwards and we have a strong ideological base. No one is leaving our party but we have been receiving feelers from top leaders of the TRS, Congress and the TDP,” he claimed.

Mr. Dattatreya said the party has not finalised the entire list because “we are holding talks with some senior leaders but I am not liberty to discuss the names with you. It will come out in a day or two.” The ex-minister also took the opportunity to question the TRS claims to be a ‘national’ party.

“There are only four national parties — BJP, Congress, CPI and CPI(M) — rest are regional parties. It is not enough to win MP seats as you need to have an national and international outlook on issues,” he said.

‘BJP only alternative’

Later, party president K. Laxman said Mr. Modi becoming the PM again is a certainty and challenged Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and TRS working president K. Taraka Rama Rao whether they are ready to accept the inevitable. He was talking to presspersons after formally welcoming former minister and Congress leader D.K. Aruna into the party fold.

Ms. Aruna has already been nominated for the Mahabubnagar constituency and she said BJP has become the only alternative to ruling TRS as the Congress party has no future in TS even as its leaders have failed to inspire the cadre. She expected BJP to win four-five seats in the State.