Hyderabad: The new head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana is likely to be named in the next 10 days, if party sources are to be believed. While a handful of names are doing rounds as the final names of the post, Malkajgiri Lok Sabha MP Eatala Rajender’s name has remained on the top to be named as the next BJP chief here. He will be replacing Union minister G Kishan Reddy.
According to the BJP insiders in Telangana, apart from Eatala Rajender, ex-MLC Ramchander Rao, Medak MP Raghunandan Rao, Nizamabad MP D Arvind and ex-MLA Chintala Ramchandra Reddy have also thrown their hats in the ring for the party president post. “But Eatala’s name has been there as the top contender since the last 4 to 5 months,” a BJP leader told Siasat.com.
The state president of BJP in Telangana was supposed to have been named last year itself, but the party is also going through an organisation rejig. So far, about 20 new district presidents have been appointed as part of it, the leader from Hyderabad stated.
The BJP’s national leadership for Telangana will also be looking someone who can take on the ruling Congress and also the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), led by ex-chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Eatala Rajender, who lost from the Gajwel and Huzurabad Assembly seats in the 2023 polls, managed to the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 Parliament elections.
BJP’s growth in Telangana
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP in Telangana managed to win eight out of 17 seats, completely usurping the BRS. The Congress won eight seats, while the AIMIM retained its Hyderabad MP seat.
The BJP in Telangana also managed to win eight MLA constituencies in the 2023 Assembly polls, and also increased its vote share. However, it made massive gains by taking about 39% of the vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Interestingly, even though analysts expected the BJP to grow and slowly eat into the main opposition space, which the BRS is holding onto in spite of its recent downward political trajectory, the political landscape still is majorly in a Congress versus BRS position.
The BRS got only 39 seats, losing last year’s Assembly elections to the Congress, which came to power with 64 seats. SInce then, the BRS in Telangana also lost 9 MLAs to the grand old party due to defections.
Bandi Sanjay, who has been aggressive with his Hindutva rhetoric in Telangana ever since he became BJP’s state president, was in fact in leadership rift with Eatala Rajender over the post. He stepped down in July 2023 and was replaced by Secunderabad Lok Sabha MP G. Kishan Reddy. That change also changed the tone in the party’s approach from the Hindutva approach to ‘development’.
More importantly, he also belongs to the Backward Classes (BC) section, which observers believe the BJP in Telangana has been trying to bring to its side. In fact, within the BJP, there had been opposition last year also from within to Eatala Rajender’s appointment as Telangana president, since he had come from the BRS and has been termed an ‘outsider’. However, given that he is a also a BC leader from the Mudiraj community, the BJP functionary said that he stands a strong chance of taking up the mantle as well.
