BJP-Jana Sena alliance in Telangana runs into rough weather

A large number of leaders and functionaries from the Kukatpally constituency staged a protest at the State BJP office on Monday demanding the party high command not to allot the two constituencies to Jana Sena as they believe the BJP had good chances of winning those seats.

Hyderabad: The proposed alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena Party (JSP) has run into rough weather over seat sharing, with BJP leaders from the Kukatpally and Serilingampally constituencies strongly opposing the party leadership decision to hand over the two constituencies to Jana Sena.

A large number of leaders and functionaries from the Kukatpally constituency staged a protest at the State BJP office on Monday demanding the party high command not to allot the two constituencies to Jana Sena as they believe the BJP had good chances of winning those seats. Last week, supporters of BJP leader Gajjala Yoganand had staged a protest at the BJP State office demanding the party high command not to allocate the Serilingampally seat to Jana Sena.

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The Kukatpally BJP leaders argue that Jana Sena does not have any base in Kukatpally constituency and alloting the seat to the party would not serve any purpose as the rival party candidate would easily win the seat. “BJP has corporators in the Kukatpally constituency. If a BJP leader is given the ticket, all the party functionaries will work for his victory. Giving this seat to JSP will be suicidal,” a BJP leader from Kukatpally said.

Even Former MP Konda Vishveswara Reddy is vehemently opposing the allotment of Serilingampally ticket to Jana Sena. He wants the Serilingampally ticket to be given to Ravikumar Yadav, who has been working in the constituency for a long time and is said to have a strong support base. Similarly, Medchal Urban district president P Harish Reddy is opposing the proposal of allotting the Kukatpally seat to Jana Sena as he feels that the BJP has more chances of winning the seat than Jana Sena.

“Serilingampally and Kukatpally are among the constituencies where BJP has chances of winning and if it is allotted to Jana Sena, there is more chance of losing the seat to rival parties,” he said.

Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan is demanding 32 seats, mostly in the erstwhile Hyderabad, Mahabubnagar, Khammam, Medak and Nalgonda districts, whereas BJP has reportedly agreed to give just 10 seats. The Jana Sena is reportedly asking BJP to allot Kukatpally, Uppal, LB Nagar, Malkajgiri, Serilingampally, Medchal, Patancheru, Qutbullapur and Sanathnagar constituencies to it.