If the rumours going on in a section of mainstream media and social media are to be believed, prominent industrialist and My Home Group chairman Jupalli Rameshwar Rao is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party shortly.
According to these reports, the BJP had offered to nominate him to Rajya Sabha from Karnataka or any other state in the elections scheduled to be held in a few months. It is not immediately known whether Rameshwar Rao had accepted the offer or not.
It is a known fact that Rameshwar Rao has been a close associate of Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the TRS rule after the formation of Telangana. Needless to say, he has been there to help KCR whenever it is required.
So, if the reports of Rameshwar Rao joining the BJP are true, it will be a big setback to KCR.
Apparently, the BJP leadership is trying to cut the financial roots of the TRS by attracting the My Home Group chairman into the party. It might even bring another industrialist Megha Krishna Reddy into the party fold soon, say these reports.
However, there is also a talk that KCR himself might be using Rameshwar Rao to get into the good books of the Narendra Modi government.
In the recent past, there were pictures of Rameshwara Rao meeting top BJP leaders in New Delhi in social media, lending credence to these speculations.
The Congress leaders also exposed these pictures during the recent elections to highlight how KCR was trying to appease the BJP through Rameshwar Rao.
“Nothing is ruled out in politics. After all political interests and business interests co-exist in this country,” an analyst said.
There is also another talk that Rameshwar Rao is unlikely to join the politics directly and accept the Rajya Sabha offer of the BJP, if he gets it.
“He is a businessman and prefers to play backroom politics, rather than straight politics,” a source said.
If he joins the BJP, he will get the saffron brand and it is difficult to get out of this in the coming years. So, he might prefer to remain a businessman but plant his people in politics, the source added.
