Karimanagar MP Bandi Sanjay, elected for first time, has been appointed as the new president of Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday. A communication to this effect was received by the party here from the national president J.P. Nadda, conveyed through the national general secretary Arun Singh.
Incumbent president K. Laxman, who was widely tipped to get a second term, was quick to congratulate his successor and wished that the party will emerge stronger and counter the TRS government. Union Minister of State for Home and Secunderabad MP G. Kishan Reddy too congratulated Mr. Sanjay on his appointment.
Although several names were being floated around in the last couple of months over the new chief for TS, the choice had narrowed down to Mr. Laxman and Mr. Sanjay, incidentally both belong to the same backward caste of Munnuru Kapus.
The Karimnagar MP’s strong link to the Rastriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) and his decisive victory in the parliamentary polls in a region considered a stronghold of the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS) brought him into immediate limelight. Another party veteran Ch. Vidyasagar Rao had earlier won from this constituency but it was in alliance with the Telugu Desam.
Other newly elected MP from Nizamabad D. Aravind too catapulted to fame for having defeated Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K. Kavita but he was a relative newcomer into the party. Mr. Sanjay’s candidature was more or less firmed up during the recent meeting of the party leaders at a private function of a top party functionary in Delhi recently, according to party sources.
Traditionally, BJP has seen city bred leaders like Bandaru Dattatreya, G. Kishan Reddy, K. Laxman and others holding the top office. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how a person, who has been generally confined to Karimnagar where he has been a corporator and lost narrowly during the Legislative Assembly polls, will measure up to the challenges ahead considering that the party claims to be the ‘natural alternative’ to TRS.
Rising from the ranks
Mr Bandi Sanjay Kumar was thrice municipal corporator from Karimnagar and contested for the Karimnagar Assembly segment in 2014 and 2018 elections and lost to the TRS candidate Gangula Kamalakar. In 2018 Assembly elections, Sanjay secured 66,009 votes from Karimnagar Assembly segment, which was the highest vote secured by BJP contestants in entire the state.
