Former Telangana health minister Eatala Rajender, who had been forced to resign from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi and join the Bharatiya Janata Party before the by-elections to Huzurabad assembly seat, is now said to be feeling sidelined in the party.
Rajender created a euphoria of sorts in the BJP by winning the Huzurabad by-poll with a huge margin of nearly 25,000 votes in November 2021.
Having a strong Leftist background and later being a strong protagonist of Telangana movement, Rajender was feeling out of place in the BJP.
However, he had to adapt himself to the saffron culture to sustain his political career. Joining the BJP was a necessity for him in order to overcome the witch-hunt by the TRS government.
But months after the victory, Eatala has not been getting the kind of recognition he was expecting in the BJP.
The entire focus was on Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay, who was hogging all the media limelight and the attention of the BJP national leadership.
Eatala was not being taken into confidence by the state party leadership on any of the programmes announced by Sanjay; nor is he being invited to the strategy meetings of the party.
Yet, the former minister has not been expressing his disgruntlement outside, because he is a new comer to the party and if he raises his voice, he will be branded as a rebel; and he might not have any other forum for his political survival.
So, Eatala is confining himself to his Huzuarabad constituency, nurturing his voter bank. He has not been coming to the BJP party office in Hyderabad, but has been maintaining friendly relations with the local BJP leaders in his constituency.
On and off, Eatala is also touring the neighbouring districts to expand his influence. But he has not stopped attacking the TRS government and the chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. He alleged that KCR was encouraging land mafia, which was grabbing even the farmers’ lands.
He refuted the allegations of the TRS leaders that BJP was Bharatiya Jhoota Party. “It is a party of people. In fact, the TRS itself a fake party,” he alleged.
Maybe, Eatala would wait till the next assembly elections before taking any decision on his political future. If he gets due recognition in the BJP, he will continue; otherwise, he will look for other alternatives.
