Hyderabad: Former Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) minister and MLA Eatala Rajender landed in New Delhi and joined the Bharatiya Jatana Party (BJP) in the presence of its national leaders. With the move from Eatala to BJP, the issue of his future in Telangana’s politics will finally come to rest. He was health minister less than a month ago.
On Monday in Delhi, Eatala Rajender was welcomed into the BJP by Trade Union Minister Piyush Goyal and other leaders. Last week, Eatala resigned as the MLA of Huzurabad from the state assembly and submitted his resignation to the speaker. For that, he announced his retirement from the TRS and voiced the party chief and Telangana chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR).
Eatala’s exit from the Telangana state cabinet under KCR was less than heartfelt, as he was removed from his post due to allegations of land grabbing. The state government has also launched an investigation against him on the issue. Two days ago, Eatala Rajender visited many leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in his residence on Friday. The head of BJP in Telangana, Tarun Chugh, was also one of the most striking faces there.
Eatala spoke to the media on Monday, saying he would work to help expand the BJP in Telangana, adding that the saffron party also wants to strive to expand the country in the country. However, it can be noted that the former MLA of Huzurabad has been delegated any specific post in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Telangana unit. “He asked for a post, but he just joined as a member,” a BJP leader said.
Like Eatala, other senior leaders of Congress and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) have joined the BJP in recent years. Former Prime Minister DK Aruna is one of them. Currently the BJP’s vice president in Telangana, it took her eight months to occupy the position.
Eatala Rajender was removed from the cabinet amid accusations of land invasion of 66 acres of allotted land by Jamuna Hatcheries Private Limited, which is owned by his family. He was ousted as health minister amid the climax of the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The health portfolio was soon taken over by Prime Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), whom he recently indirectly criticized in public.
The former health minister met several political leaders from various parties, including Congress, but in the end chose to join the BJP. The saffron party hopes through Eatala Rajender that it can finally invade the rural areas of Telangana by riding on such leaders. Even in the recent by-election in Nagarjuna, the BJP was able to get only 7,000 votes, showing that it is weak in rural areas.
Both BJP and TRS leaders said Siasat.com earlier that Eatala Rajender is unlikely to win his seat, Huzurabad (in Karimnagar), on his own. “He is more concerned about his properties, and he expects help because BJP is in the center,” the BJP leader said.
Eatala Rajender’s decision to join the BJP, which confirmed senior leaders of the saffron party Siasat.com earlier, is probably a step to protect himself from the corruption investigation of the state government against him. More importantly, dismissing him was also a step by TRS supremo and K. Chandrasekhar (KCR)’s prime minister of Telangana to silence other dissidents who might have made noise if they had not been checked.
“We expect more leaders to join our party in the coming days. Now there is applause at Huzurabad, but apart from that all other elections are over. So we have to wait and see. From now on, however, no other MLA wants to defect from the TRS. But there is time before the state election in 2023, “said a BJP leader, who did not want to be quoted.
Source: The Siasat Daily