Hindutva or target KCR? Telangana BJP split after Karnataka election result

HYDERABAD: The Congress's robust win in the Karnataka assembly election seems to have divided the BJP in Telangana into two distinct groups.
One group wants state BJP president Bandi Sanjay & Co to continue with the strong Hindutva line that he has taken ahead of the assembly elections in December. The other group, made up mostly of leaders from other parties who joined BJP recently, believes that Karnataka has shown the limits of Hindutva in southern India. They want the saffron party to keep attacking chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on his policies and unkept promises.

Although this schism has existed in the party for some time, the Karnataka results have prompted both groups to push their case aggressively with the high command.
Sanjay, who is the Karimnagar MP, and his followers have so far kept up a strong Hindutva rhetoric.
Sanjay even stated that the domes of the newly built secretariat in Hyderabad look like those of a mosque. He has vowed to demolish these if his party is voted to power. He invited the makers of the film 'The Kerala Story' to come to Telangana recently and made incendiary remarks during a public meeting.

Leaders of the second group, on the other hand, believe that the southern states have a strong regional identity and KCR and BRS should be attacked for diluting this aspect. Sources in the party told TOI that a good example of regional politics is the Amul versus Nandini dairy battle that played out in Karnataka during the assembly election campaigning. They believe that the Congress gained substantially by backing 'local' Nandini against 'outsider' Amul.
Amid this debate in the party, sources told TOI that former BRS leader Eatala Rajender, who is now in charge of BJP's committee to bring leaders from other parties into the fold, is in Delhi to meet Union home minister Amit Shah. Although his reasons for meeting Shah are unclear, sources said the Telangana BJP is in the process of sharpening its strategy ahead of the assembly elections.
"The next 30 days will be critical for the party in light of these developments. The state executive committee on May 22 and 23 will be a heated one," a top leader said.