VIJAYAWADA:  MLC Somu Veerraju has been appointed as the new chief of the BJP’s Andhra Pradesh unit. Veerraju, hailing from the Kapu community, replaces senior politician Kanna Lakshminarayana, who held the position since March 2018. BJP national president JP Nadda announced the appointment of Veerraju on Monday night. Sources said Lakshminarayana’s recent letter to the Governor requesting him to reject the bills sent by the State — on setting up three capitals — attracted the ire of the party high command. Sources also said the party wanted an ‘ideologically committed’ leader to lead and strengthen the party from the grassroots.

Lakshminarayana was earlier a Congress leader, and was a minister in the YS Rajasekhara Reddy cabinet. Veer raju, h a i l i n g f r o m Katheru village in East Godavari district, hails from Kapu community, which Kanna Lakshminarayana also belong to. By appointing Veerraju, a vociferous opponent of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the party leadership also wanted to send a signal that it is not influenced by leaders from the yellow party who joined it after the 2019 elections.

With the joining of three Rajya Sabha MPs of TDP into BJP after the elections, the party earned the criticism of toeing the line of TDP. By replacing Lakshminarayana with another Kapu leader, the saffron party wants to consolidate its base among the community, which has a large population in the State, while the two regional parties in the State -- the YSRC and TDP -- have their support base among the Reddy and Kamma comm u n i t i e s r e s p e c - tively.