Gadkari hints at BRS advantage, feels BJP doesn’t stand chance in Telangana

HYDERABAD: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has hinted that the Bharatiya Janata Party may emerge as a strong opposition in Telangana in the upcoming elections in the State. In an interview to senior journalist Smitha Prakash, the minister said that the BJP would win Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. “In Telangana, our strength will substantially increase.We will be a formidable force and become the main opposition. If time favours, we will derive more advantage there.”

This open admission by a leader of Gadkari’s stature has explained the situation of the BJP in the state.

The Telangana BJP which was buoyant before the Karnataka election debacle, developed cold feet in recent days struck by a series of unsavoury developments.

Its senior leaders Etela Rajender, Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, Jitender Reddy and Raghunandan Rao raised the banner of revolt against the party leadership. The party won only one seat in the 2019 elections in the shape of Goshamahal legislator Raja Singh Lodh.

Raja Singh was suspended from the party for his extreme right-wing stance and utterances and his appeal for a revocation is pending before the leadership. Even the actor-turned-politician and the BJP leader Vijayashanti appealed to the leadership to revoke his suspension.

Etela Rajender and Raghunandan Rao are vocal about their dissension and are disgruntled with the humiliation meted out by the party. With the three MLAs of the BJP not aligned with the Telangana unit of the party, the party is on the verge of collapse as far as Telangana leadership is concerned.

The political brinkmanship of the Telangana BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay is supposed to be the cause of internal bickering. Bandi who is portrayed as a rabble-rouser could generate heat initially. His inept handling of things resulted in the party losing whatever little grip it gained in Telangana. Now the BJP is at political crossroads, back to square one.

On the other hand, Congress is milking advantage in its favour, and emerged as a challenger to the BRS. With seniors like Etela Rajender and Rajgopal Reddy looking for greener pastures in the Congress, there is a likelihood of an exodus from the BJP into the Congress.

Former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders Jupally Krishna Rao and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, who were initially wooed by the BJP, also went adrift towards Congress and made their intentions clear, thus setting the agenda for the BJP in Telangana even without joining that party.

Etela Rajender in his frequent media utterances has been suggesting that every political party has K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR)’s coverts in them. Being a seasoned leader, Rajender has amply indicated that KCR is an unassailable leader in Telangana, thus obliquely inferring that neither the Congress nor the BJP is in a position to take on KCR.

Rubbing the proverbial salt on the raging wound of the BJP, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari too minced no words in acknowledging the BRS’s supremacy in Telangana. Gadkari’s statement should be understood from the lens of anti-Congressism. TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy keeps on commenting that the BRS is becoming the B Team of the BJP which was properly refuted by the BRS supremo KCR. It appears that the BJP is in a mood to play second fiddle to the BRS on the sly. Because the Modi-Shah team has always sponsored the idea of 'either it is the BJP or, if not, any other party, but surely not the Congress'.

As things appear, the BRS enjoys a strong popular vibe in its favour in Telangana. The Congress is making all efforts to take the wind, which is blowing in favour of the BRS, out of the latter’s sails. Nithin Gadkari’s statement just buttresses the pro-BRS political situation in Telangana.