BJP doors open for all, but questions on party posts remain

HYDERABAD: Telangana activists Ch Vittal and C Naveen Kumar alias Teenmaar Mallanna joining the saffron brigade is being seen by insiders in BJP as a development that could help it break the myth carefully cultivated by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao that he alone is responsible for achieving statehood for Telangana. 

While the saffron party may or may not be able to utilise the development to its advantage, the question whether the two social activists would be given due recognition in the party is something only time would answer.

Ch Vittal, who had served as the member of Telangana Public Service Commission in the State government, had taken the decision to join the BJP because he was a close confidante of Huzurabad BJP MLA Eatala Rajender, with whom TRS leadership has developed animosity.  

Vittal -- who was groomed by RSS since his childhood and was also active in the ABVP during his student days -- has been approaching party elders seeking ticket from either Qutbullapur, Rajendranagar, Parigi or Narsapur constituencies. 

However, Teenmaar Mallanna has maintained that all that he wants is to see the TRS supremo and Chief Minister behind bars.

Though BJP has been following Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s strategy of ‘welcome whoever wants to join the party, when and what needs to be given will be given,’ representation in Parliament of those who joined the BJP after 2014 remains low. 

Only around 10 Ministers in the Union Cabinet belong to this category and around 50-60 MPs have come from other parties. Also, it is still a practice within the BJP that those holding higher positions and getting elevations have to have strong roots in the RSS. 

Coming to the State politics, nothing can be confirmed till the 2023 elections, when all the probabilities and predictions would be laid to rest and the dynamics of the party would decide who gets what.