BJP faces leadership crisis in Telugu states

BJP, YSRCP, TDP, Jana Sena, Congress, Hyderabad: The BJP seems to be facing leadership crisis in the two Telugu states vis a vis Congress and other regional parties like BRS, TDP and YSRCP?

Leaders of old school in the party feel that there has been no systematic effort to groom new leadership both in the undivided Andhra Pradesh and now the two Telugu states.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior party leader pointed out that the vision for the party from the days of United Andhra Pradesh was to grow on its own. But, for several reasons, this remained as the last thing on the party's agenda. The impact of this is now being felt in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. This weakness got more exposed as the saffron party opened its doors to the new entrants from other parties before the 2023 Assembly elections in Telangana.

As those who joined were from parties with different ideology and were new to the BJP style of functioning found it difficult to adjust here and that had led to differences and even groupism which had never come to fore openly.

The saving grace to some extent for Telangana is that the BJP has stronger base here and had better foundation compared to Andhra Pradesh as there were prominent faces who had successfully led the party here.

The party and people even today remember leaders like Baddam Bal Reddy, Ale Narendra, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, M Venkaiah Naidu, Nallu Indrasena Reddy and Bandru Dattareya who had led the party successfully and ensured that BJP was a force to be reckoned with. Today the situation is that such stalwarts were missing from the party. The only fiery MLA after Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay is Goshamahal MLA Raja Singh who is known for his fiery speeches. But his style had been landing the party into trouble often.

Interestingly, among the present leaders state president G Kishen Reddy and the former TBJP president Bandi Sanjay are prominently known in both the Telugu states. This shows how APBJP lacks strong home-grown leaders who can stike a chord with the masses. In contrast, regional parties like TDP and YSRCP has thrown up many leaders.