Hyderabad, July 4: In a major overhaul aimed at expanding its presence in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Jarkhand the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday appointed Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy and former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeswari as the new state party presidents, respectively.
Kishan Reddy, the current Minister for Tourism and Culture, replaces Bandi Sanjay, who is also a Member of Parliament.
Purandeswari, who joined the BJP in 2014, is the daughter of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder N. T. Rama Rao. She takes over from Somu Veerraju. The new state BJP presidents were appointed by BJP National President J. P. Nadda.
Additionally, former Andhra Pradesh CM Kiran Kumar Reddy has been appointed as a member of the BJP’s national executive committee. Kiran Kumar Reddy, who was the last CM of united Andhra Pradesh, joined the BJP a couple of months ago.
Furthermore, former Telangana minister and BJP MLA Eatala Rajender has been appointed as the chairman of the election management committee of the Telangana BJP.
Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held later this year, while Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh are set to take place alongside the Lok Sabha elections next year.
These appointments come after weeks of speculation, during which BJP General Secretary in charge of Telangana, Tarun Chug, had previously ruled out any change in state leadership.
Eatala Rajender and several other leaders had expressed their dissatisfaction with the functioning style of Bandi Sanjay and had been demanding his removal from the central leadership.
Similarly, a section of BJP leaders in AP had been demanding a change in the state leadership.
Currently, the BJP has three Members of MLAs in the 119-member Telangana Assembly and four MPs from the state. However, the BJP party has no representation in the AP Assembly and failed to win any seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
