Eatala Rajender emerges are front-runner for Telangana BJP prez post

The development is important as it will set the tone for the party’s way forward in Telangana, especially after its impressive win in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections this year.

Hyderabad: Malkajgiri Lok Sahba member of Parliament (MP) Eatala Rajender has emerged as a favourite to become the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Telangana president. The MP along with ex-MLC and long-term party leader Ram Chander had emerged as front-runners for the post that was supposed to be filled up earlier this year.

However, due to delays in filling up organisation positions on the district level, the change in the BJP’s leadership for Telangana has been delayed. “The change is going to happen by next month around Sankranthi. The process that includes the election of the district presidents will be done by then. By January 10 or so, the state election president will be selected. Mostly it will be driven by consensus in the party,” a BJP leader who did not want to be said.

A day earlier, Karimnagar MP and Union minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar clarified he is not in the race. Kumar, who was the state BJP earlier, was replaced by G Kishan Reddy (and Secunderabad Lok Sabha MP) just before the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections.

Eatala Rajender, an ex-BRS minister, was sacked by former Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) over corruption allegations from the cabinet. He then quit the BRS and joined the BJP, following which he won as an MP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He had also reportedly lobbied for the same position earlier, but was unsuccessful, sources said.

“Serious contenders for the BJP president post here are Eatala Rajender and Ram Chander Rao. I personally believe Eatala will become the president as he is a voice who can take on both the ruling Congress and the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). It is also about who can damage both those parties in the. Even if we are a small political threat politically, Eatala is someone that both those parties will be worried about,” said the BJP leader.

BJP’s growth in Telangana

The development is important as it will set the tone for the party’s way forward in Telangana, especially after its impressive win in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections this year. The BJP here managed to win 8 out of the 17 Parliamentary seats in Telangana, giving the ruling Congress and the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) a rude shock, as the incumbent government expected to win more seats.

The BJP in Telangana managed to win eight MLA constituencies in the 2023 Assembly polls, and also increased its vote share. However, it made massive gains by taking about 39% of the vote share in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Since the elections however there have only ben rumours of a change in leadership between Eatala Rajender and Ram Chander Rao.

Interestingly, even though analysts expected the BJP to grow and slowly eat into the main opposition space, which the BRS is holding onto in spite of its recent downward political trajectory, the political landscape still is majorly in a Congress versus BRS position. “We will more active once the leadership changes,” added the BJP leader.

The BRS got only 39 seats, losing last year’s Assembly elections to the Congress, which came to power with 64 seats. SInce then, the BRS in Telangana also lost 9 MLAs to the grand old party due to defections.Bandi Sanjay, who has been aggressive with his Hindutva rhetoric in Telangana ever since he became BJP’s state president, was in fact in a leadership rift with Eatala Rajender over the post. He stepped down in July 2023 and was replaced by Secunderabad Lok Sabha MP G. Kishan Reddy. That change also changed the tone in the party’s approach from the Hindutva approach to ‘development’.