Kishan Reddy replaces Bandi as Telangana BJP chief

Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy is appointed as the new president of BJP party's Telangana unit replacing Bandi Sanjay.

Hyderabad: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appointed union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy as the new president of party’s Telangana unit, while Huzurabad MLA Eatala Rajender was given the post of chairman of the party’s Election Management Committee.

The BJP also appointed Sunil Jakhar as party president in Punjab, Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand and former union minister D Purandeswari in Andhra Pradesh.

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Over the last one month, with the infighting in the Telangana unit spilling out in the open and leaders sledging each other on social media, apart from multiple senior leaders voicing their displeasure over the functioning style of Bandi Sanjay, there were reports on the party leadership’s plan to replace Sanjay. Since the last one week, Kishan Reddy’s name was doing the rounds as the new chief. Though the party leadership earlier denied any plans of replacing Sanjay, it announced the name of Kishan Reddy as the new chief on Tuesday.

According to party sources, BJP National President JP Nadda and union Home Minister Amit Shah, who recently held discussions with Kishan Reddy, Eatala Rajender and Bandi Sanjay in Delhi, decided to replace Sanjay to bring some stability in the party. They felt that the internal rift between leaders was affecting the party’s prospects in the State, hence there was an urgent need to resolve the issue as the party cannot face the upcoming assembly polls with a divided house.

There are unconfirmed reports that Sanjay will be accommodated in the union cabinet shortly. Eatala Rajender has been demanding the party leadership to give him some key responsibility for a long time and had also brought the issue to the notice of Nadda and Amit Shah several times. There were also reports that Eatala along with Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy were planning to leave the party and join Congress as they were not being given importance in the party.

The duo had been at loggerheads with Sanjay since a long time and were demanding the high command to replace him.