Kishan Reddy-Eatala cold war threatens to derail BJP’s election campaign in Telangana

Sources in the party said the two leaders were not getting along with each other, leading to a lot of confusion and unrest among party leaders and functionaries

Hyderabad: The ongoing cold war between State BJP unit president G Kishan Reddy and party election management committee chairman Eatala Rajender is creating problems for other leaders in taking up election campaigning in the State.

Sources in the party said the two leaders were not getting along with each other, leading to a lot of confusion and unrest among party leaders and functionaries. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his recent visit to the city, reportedly expressed displeasure over the way things were moving in the Telangana unit of the party, especially about lack of coordination among senior leaders. He advised Kishan Reddy and Eatala to set aside differences and work together for the victory of the party in the forthcoming polls to the State assembly.

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BJP State election in-charge Prakash Javadekar too was unhappy with the behaviour of Kishan Reddy and Eatala and asked them to sort out differences and start working to strengthen the party at the grassroots level. He reportedly told them that the party had already wasted a lot of time to settle the internal bickering and if the poll campaign was not taken up right now, it would be very difficult for the party to match the ruling BRS, which had already announced the candidates and started campaigning .

It is learnt that Eatala was not getting the desired support from the BJP central leadership following which he was not able to take independent decisions with regard to poll campaigning. Even party old timers were said to be creating trouble for him and not allowing him to take up programmes. Eatala, who is also heading the joining committee of the party, is also being criticized for not able to convince senior leaders from rival parties to join the BJP.

Several State BJP leaders and functionaries feel that replacing Bandi Sanjay with Kishan Reddy has not helped the party in any way and that the rift between leaders was continuing, creating a lot of unrest among the cadre.