Hyderabad: The BJP central leadership is reportedly planning to bring Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay back as the State president of the party in Telangana. The name of the new State unit chief is likely to be announced next month.
The party believes that under Sanjay’s leadership, the party can gain strength in Telangana and could form the next government in the State. His popularity among the people and party cadres and his ability to connect party activists and sympathisers would help the party in the next Assembly elections, the party leaders believe.
The RSS also wants the BJP leadership to appoint a person who swears by the core ideology of it to head the State unit and Sanjay fits into that stand of RSS. The next Assembly elections in the State is scheduled to be held in November 2028.
The move follows the general opinion within the party that the BJP would have fared much better if Bandi Sanjay was not shunted out of the president’s chair just six months before the 2023 Assembly polls, largely on account of internal politics at the State level.
Moreover, Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, who replaced Bandi Sanjay in July last year, was clear that he would not like to continue in the position beyond the Assembly elections on the ground that he would not be able to give enough time and attention to the State. But the party leadership continued with him and managed to win eight Lok Sabha seats.
Since the local body polls are likely to be held in Telangana in the next few months, the party leadership is of the opinion that if Sanjay is made the party chief, the party could perform well in the polls. During his earlier stint as BJP State chief, Sanjay organised Praja Sangrama Yatra, which got an encouraging response from many areas in the State.
An internal report submitted by central leaders during the last Assembly elections also suggested that Sanjay was more popular than any other BJP leader in the State, which is said to have been among factors that made the BJP leadership to once again look towards Sanjay, according to party sources.