OBC leaders feeling sidelined in BJP

The BJP national leadership's plan to secure the support of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the State appears to have hit a roadblock.

Hyderabad: The BJP national leadership’s plan to secure the support of Other Backward Classes (OBCs) for the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the State appears to have hit a roadblock with the community reportedly expressing displeasure over their leaders being sidelined within the party.

The unceremonious exit of Bandi Sanjay, an OBC, from the post of State president, has reportedly not gone down well with party leaders and cadres belonging to OBC communities. They are of the opinion that on one hand, the party leadership wants the support of OBC communities in the upcoming polls, and on the other, it was treating their community leaders shabbily.

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In fact, the sacking of Bandi Sanjay has hit the morale of party OBC leaders as he was seen as the leader who gave momentum to the party during the last three years. Sanjay played a key role in strengthening the party. It was under his leadership that the party won two Assembly by-elections and secured 48 seats in the GHMC elections. The party emerged as the main challenge to the ruling BRS and had started projecting itself as the only viable alternative to the BRS.

Even the appointment of Eatala Rajender, a prominent OBC leader from the Mudiraj community, as the chairman of the election management committee of the State, has not pleased the OBC leaders as they are apprehensive of him being allowed to function independently. Since former union minister and Rajya Sabha member Prakash Javadekar has been appointed party election in-charge with national general secretary Sunil Bansal as his deputy, Eatala might not get a free hand in taking decisions, a senior party leader said.

The BJP’s attempts at providing greater representation to OBCs in Uttar Pradesh have borne fruit during assembly polls in that State, hence, the party is keen in implementing a similar formula in Telangana to garner the support of the community. However, the party’s effort to attract OBC communities is not yielding results as they appeared to be more inclined towards the ruling BRS. The BJP had organised outreach programmes for OBCs in April, but it got very poor response from the community members.

In the last assembly polls five years ago, the OBC communities supported the BRS and helped it capture power for the second consecutive term. According to party sources, BJP State OBC leaders do not see support coming from their communities for the party in the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha polls.