Cold war between Bandaru, Laxman over Musheerabad ticket

While Bandaru Dattatreya wants the party high command to allocate the seat to his daughter Vijayalaxmi, Laxman, does want to give it to Bandaru's daughter as he feels that he would permanently lose the constituency

Hyderabad: Even as the BJP leadership is preparing to announce the first list of candidates for the forthcoming polls to the State assembly, a conflict within the State BJP on ticket for the Musheerabad assembly seat has already started.

A cold war has begun between senior BJP leader and Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and Rajya Sabha member K Laxman over the Musheerabad assembly seat. While Bandaru Dattatreya wants the party high command to allocate the seat to his daughter Vijayalaxmi, Laxman, who has represented the constituency twice, does want to give it to Bandaru’s daughter as he feels that he would permanently lose the constituency, which he believes has been his bastion for over three decades. Instead he wants the party to give the ticket to his close aide.

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He wants Bandaru’s daughter to contest from Sanathnagar and keep away from his constituency. Laxman, who contested from Musheerabad in 2018, lost to BRS candidate Mutha Gopal. Sources in the party said the Bandaru faction has clearly told Laxman that he had to vacate the seat for Vijayalaxmi as he was now a Rajya Sabha member and that she had better chances to win than his followers.

It is learnt that all the four BJP corporators from the Musheerabad constituency were supporting Vijayalaxmi’s candidature. The corporators feel that Vijayalaxmi stands a better chance to defeat ruling party sitting MLA Mutha Gopal than Laxman’s followers.

Bandaru and Laxman are two of the senior most BJP leaders in Telangana and have been sharing good relations for decades. Sources in the party said Bandaru played a vital role in getting Laxman nominated as Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh.

According to sources, going Bandaru’s efforts to strengthen the party in the State and his closeness to the party leadership, his daughter was likely to get the Musheerabad ticket.