Following the landslide victory in the assembly elections in four states, of the Bharatiya Janata Party seems to be of building high hopes on coming to power in Telangana as well as Andhra Pradesh.
The party leaders are already talking as if they are going to win the next elections in the two Telugu states. They are of the view that in the years to come, the BJP is going to be the only alternative for the regional parties in the two states.
However, the BJP knows that there is a leadership crisis in the party at the constituency level; and so, it is planning to lure strong leaders from the other parties into it, so that it would have strong leader and cadre base.
In Telangana, the BJP is looking for attracting as many Congress leaders as possible into the party. Since the Congress has suffered miserably in all the five assembly elections held lately, the party’s morale in Telangana, too, has taken a strong beating.
So, it is focussing on luring the prominent Congress leaders first. Already Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy sent enough signals that he might jump into the saffron party.
Many other leaders in Adilabad, Karimnagar and Medak districts are said to be planning to jump into the BJP.
The party is also trying to attract disgruntled leaders from Telangana Rashtra Samithi. Former minister Jupalli Krishna Rao is said to be sending feelers to the BJP leadership.
In Andhra Pradesh, too, the BJP is hoping that many disgruntled leaders from the YSR Congress party and the Telugu Desam Party might join the saffron bandwagon soon.
“The Congress party has downed its shutters both at the national level and the state level. Many Congress leaders are interested in joining the BJP. So are the leaders from other parties like TDP and the YSRC,” BJP Rajya Sabha member G V L Naraismha Rao said.
He, however, said the BJP would not invite anybody to join the party.
“If they like the party philosophy and the leadership of Narendra Modi, we shall welcome them,” he added.
