Karimnagar BJP leaders urge party against LS ticket to Bandi

They reportedly cautioned the party leadership that if Sanjay was given Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat ticket, they would ensure his defeat

Hyderabad: BJP national general secretary Bandi Sanjay, who is making efforts to retain his Karimnagar Parliament seat for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls early next year, is facing a stiff challenge from his own party leaders in Karimnagar district.

Party sources said BJP leaders from 13 assembly constituencies in the erstwhile Karimnagar district on Thursday met at a hotel in Karimnagar town and passed a unanimous resolution urging the leadership not to give the Karimnagar LS seat to Sanjay for next year’s general elections. They reportedly cautioned the party leadership that if Sanjay was given Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat ticket, they would ensure his defeat.

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It is learnt that several senior leaders of Karimnagar district were not happy with Sanjay as he was allegedly ignoring them ever since he became State BJP chief. They were also reportedly unhappy that the former State president never invited them for Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s public meetings.

Sources in the party said that Sanjay lost the Karimnagar assembly seat as a majority of the senior leaders of the district stayed away from the campaign. “If he would have been on good terms with local leaders, he would have definitely won the Karimnagar seat,” a BJP leader said.

Sanjay was shunted out of the post of State party chief after several senior party leaders including former MLAs Etala Rajender, M Raghunandan Rao, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy (currently in Congress), lodged a complaint with the party leadership over his style of functioning. Now again complaints are coming against him from his district BJP leaders, which has become a cause of worry for the State leadership.

Senior leaders K Lingaiah, G Ramakrishna Reddy, Sugunakar Rao, Anjaiah and others allegedly participated in the meeting.