New joinings cause heartburn in Telangana BJP

HYDERABAD: Following the debate within Telangana BJP over adopting the Hindutva narrative in Telangana, the issue of leaders from other parties joining has become another hot potato for the party leadership. While the Munugode by-election halted leaders from other parties willing to join BJP in their tracks, the issue has now resulted in a split within the party.

Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, the former Khammam MP who was suspended from BRS, has emerged as a key figure in the debate. Sources say tensions began running high after he was approached by BJP’s top leadership in Delhi. The issue spiralled after the Delhi leadership involved Eatala Rajender, a former BRS leader himself, in talks with Ponguleti. However, the leaders abandoned their pursuit of Ponguleti after he proposed a set of conditions to join the party.
Eatala had openly said that there is nothing wrong in leaders from other parties expecting a ticket or recognition for joining BJP based on their previous track record.
A section of leaders was upset at this point. The matter was taken to the top leadership in Delhi, where the section said it was impossible to get leaders from other parties to join BJP without conditions. They said that a group of old leaders were blocking the move to woo non-BJP leaders.
The old guard, on its part, said the newly joined leaders are responsible for negating BJP’s efforts to woo netas from other parties. The veterans said that new leaders were painting a negative picture and dissuading people wanting to join the saffron party.
The division within the party can be gauged by the comments of party veteran Vijaya Shanti. She said: “Did the GHMC elections and Dubbak victories for BJP happen because of the new people who joined our party? How can they say our party is losing ground because new leaders are not joining.”
Interestingly, the same leaders who felt that the Hindutva card does not work in Telangana, also pushed wanted the party to allow newcomers to put forth their conditions and honour them.
Union minister Kishan Reddy, however, was confident that the influx of new leaders won’t affect their election results.