The BJP has been striving to establish a presence in Telangana for the past few years and made significant progress by winning 48 out of 150 seats in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections in December 2020.
The party’s momentum continued with victories in the Dubbaka bypoll in 2020 and the Huzurabad bypoll a year later. Although it faced defeat in the Munugode bypoll in 2022 against the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), led by K Chandrashekar Rao, the BJP is now focusing on strengthening its grassroots support. Party leaders believe they have a strong advantage in capitalizing on the public dissatisfaction towards the BRS government.
To fulfill this promise, the party relies on three key individuals:
G Kishan Reddy, Telangana BJP president
In a surprising move in July, G Kishan Reddy, the 59-year-old Union Minister for Tourism, Culture, and Development of the Northeastern region, replaced Bandi Sanjay Kumar as the Telangana BJP chief. Many speculate this change was made to address emerging differences within the state unit.
With his previous experience as BJP Telangana president from 2014 to 2016, Reddy appears to have successfully managed this task. His role on the national stage seems to have aided him as well. “He has a better rapport with the central BJP leadership. The BJP leaders here are confident that he will lead the party effectively during the elections,” said a BJP leader.
Another senior state leader reveals that the party has managed to unite the “disgruntled factions.”
Reddy was a member of the Janata Party during his college days before joining the BJP. He served as the treasurer of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP in the early 1980s and later became the secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha. He was elected as an MLA from the Himayatnagar seat in 2004, which was later merged with the Khairtabad constituency. In 2009 and 2014, he won the Amberpet seats. Reddy was the president of the BJP in undivided Andhra Pradesh from 2010 to 2014 and was appointed as head of the Telangana wing after the state’s creation in June 2014.
However, some members of the party have criticized Reddy for being too “soft” in his approach towards the BRS, especially when compared to the “aggressive” stance of Kumar.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar
Serving as the state BJP president from May 2020 to July this year, the 52-year-old is credited with expanding the party’s support base through his statewide Praja Sangram Yatra.
Kumar conducted the yatra over five phases, covering more than 60 Assembly constituencies, starting in August 2021. His yatra received praise from Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who mentioned Kumar in a public meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi allegedly congratulated him privately.
The BJP is now relying on Kumar to mobilize the crowds he gathered during the yatra for the upcoming elections.
This is a significant rise for Kumar, who was relatively unknown in the state BJP until just four years ago. He gained prominence after winning the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat in 2019, following a previous loss in the Assembly seat of the same name a few months prior. Prior to this, he served as a Karimnagar municipal corporator twice.
A former ABVP leader, Kumar contested in the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections in Karimnagar but lost both times to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS, then known as BRS).
However, some leaders have expressed concerns about his working style. While one of them mentioned that he is difficult to work with, another stated that he prefers working alone.
K Laxman, BJP OBC Morcha national president
Laxman, a soft-spoken and “amiable” senior leader, was appointed the national president of the OBC Morcha in September 2020. The 67-year-old is considered vital to the BJP’s efforts in attracting OBC voters in the upcoming elections.
Also a former ABVP leader, Laxman served as an MLA from Musheerabad in Hyderabad from 1999 to 2004 and 2014 to 2018. He was the state BJP president from 2016 to 2020, during which the party won four MP seats in 2019 — Secunderabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, and Adilabad.
In July 2022, he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh.
Laxman stirred controversy in 2019 when he questioned the Telangana government’s decision to appoint tennis player Sania Mirza as the state’s brand ambassador. He stated that Mirza was not a “representative of India” due to her marriage to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik.