BJP continues to hedge its bets on newcomers in Telangana

BJP's Central Election Committee selects new entrants, including turncoats, for Lok Sabha polls in Hyderabad, with surprises and speculation.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Central Election Committee continued to hedge its bets on new entrants into the party to contest the Lok Sabha polls with turncoats, mostly those from the BRS, getting tickets in the second list released on Wednesday.

If former BRS MPs A. Seetaram Naik and G. Nagesh got the party nod for the seats of Mahabubabad and Adilabad respectively, former BRS MLA S. Saidi Reddy will be contesting from Nalgonda. It means sitting BJP Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao has been dropped as was widely speculated. A Congress leader G. Srinivas got the ticket to contest from Peddapalli. Incidentally, all these leaders joined the saffron party just a few days ago in New Delhi and have been rewarded with tickets.

Party vice president D.K. Aruna seems to managed to ward off the challenge from another former MP A.P. Jithender Reddy to get nominated for the Mahabubnagar Parliament constituency, while former MLA M. Raghunandan Rao got the Medak ticket for which he has been lobbying hard. Even these two leaders are recent entrants having moved from the Congress Party and the BRS, respectively.

The party had earlier released the first list on March 2 when it had renominated sitting MPs — G. Kishan Reddy from Secunderabad, Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Karimnagar), D. Aravind (Nizamabad) and former Minister Eatala Rajender (Malkajgiri).

The list also had two-time BRS MP from Zaheerabad B.B. Patil being given party ticket and son of another BRS MP P. Ramulu for Nagarkurnool SC reserved constituency. Another new face was Madhavi Latha of Virinchi Hospitals for Hyderabad. Two more ex-BRS MPs Konda Vishveshwar Reddy for Chevella. and Dr. B. Narsaiah Goud for Bhongir were named in the first list.

Khammam and Warangal are the only remaining constituencies now for which candidates are yet to be announced. Going by the trend, ‘outsiders’ are likely to be in the forefront here also.

Former BRS MLA Aroori Ramesh could have been the natural choice for the BJP to field from Warangal SC seat but on a day of high drama, senior BRS leaders whisked him away from his residence to meet party supremo K. Chandrashekhar Rao. The former MLA had met Union Minister Amit Shah in Hyderabad on Tuesday and word was that he would get the go ahead for the Warangal seat. Another strong name doing the rounds is that of former BRS MLA Jalagam Venkat Rao, who is tipped to get the BJP ticket from Khammam.