The BJP in Telangana is suffering a series of setbacks as many of its tall leaders are leaving the party amid election campaign in the state.
There are speculation that Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, former Chevella MP, scion of a well-known political family and husband of Apollo Group of Hospitals MD Sangeeta Reddy, is likely to leave the saffron bandwagon soon.
Vishweshwar Reddy was reportedly angered over proposal of allocating Sherlingampalli Assembly seat to Jana Sena as part of alliance with BJP. The Assembly seat falls under Chevella where Vishweshwar Reddy loyalist, former MLA Bikshapati Yadav’s son Ravi Yadav was aspiring for a BJP ticket.
Sherlingampalli is among some Assembly constituencies in the outskirts of Hyderabad where a significant number of people from Andhra Pradesh have settler. They play a crucial role in the poll outcome. LB Nagar, Kukatpalli, Qutbullahpur, Uppal, Malkajgiri and Pathancheru are other seats that are dominated by Andhra-origin voters, who are known to be traditionally a vote bank of TDP.
However, TDP recently announced that it was not going to contest Telangana elections.
Jana Sena is the party that is emerging frontrunner in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh where recent developments involving TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest by CID, protests by youth in Hitec city and other parts of Hyderabad had made political circles curious.
In this background, Vishveshwar Reddy reportedly given ultimatum to BJP against giving Sherlingampalli seat to Jana Sena, reports said. Chevalla parliamentary constituency also has a significant number of Muslim voters.
Vishweshwar Reddy has been unhappy with the BJP for some time like G Vivek, who quit the party on Wednesday as was expected. BJP national vice president DK Aruna also made it clear that she was not in the Assembly fray and intended to contest only Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, the leaders who created a wave in favour of the BJP in Telangana are apparently feeling uncomfortable and exploring options to leave the party.
Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, whose fight in Munugode bypoll had boosted BJP image in the state, also quit the party and rejoined Congress recently. He is now a candidate for the same seat.
