VIJAYAWADA: Just a few days ahead of the elections, internal issues seem to be rocking the BJP State unit, which is aiming to dent the prospects of both the TDP and the YSRC in a few Parliamentary and Assembly segments.

It is learnt that two senior office-bearers have resigned from their posts in a span of two days, following the allegations of misuse of party fund. Sources in the party said that the State general secretary and treasurer, S Suresh Reddy and P Sanyasi Raju, have sent in their resignation letters to State chief Kanna Lakshminarayana after being pulled up by the Central leadership.

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Interestingly, both Suresh Reddy and Sanyasi Raju are contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Nellore and Vizianagaram constituencies. "The issue of misuse of funds during the ongoing poll campaign and public meetings has come to light. A report was submitted to our central leadership, who took the matter seriously. So, both of them sent in their resignation letters to our State president," a top leader from the State unit confirmed to TNIE.

According to members of the party, the duo, along with a few other State executive body members, allegedly misused the party funds in the name of mobilising people for the election meetings of the top brass leaders, and other expenses made on the preparations for the meeting. "A scrutiny of expenses of one of the meetings revealed that Rs 50 lakh was spent as against the Rs 75 lakh claimed. The central leadership took the issue seriously, which led to the resignations," the source added. 

It may be noted that a few of the saffron party’s public meetings have received a rather lukewarm response from the public as the State unit failed to mobilise necessary people.

The case in point being Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Avanigadda a few days ago. “The national leaders wondered as to why the response has been not as expected despite spending necessary funds. This led to an inquiry,” a leader observed.