The 70-member national executive committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party announced by party president J P Nadda on Saturday evening has sprung many surprises for the Telugu states.
There is hardly any representation to the Telugu states, where the BJP is planning to emerge as a potential political alternative. Particularly from Telangana, where the BJP is hoping to come to power in 2024, there is hardly any representation in the national executive.
Only former minister D K Aruna, who defected from the Congress into the BJP only a couple of years ago, was inducted into the BJP executive as one of the 12 national vice-presidents, while former state BJP president Dr K Laxman was made OBC national morcha president.
From Andhra Pradesh, too, there is hardly any representation. Former Union minister Daggubati Purandeshwari was made one of the nine national general secretaries, while Satya Kumar, who was till recently with M Venkaiah Naidu, was made one of the 13 national secretaries.
What is more important is the absence of big names like G V L Narasimha Rao, Ram Madhav and P Muralidhar Rao in the list.
While GVL was the national official spokesman, Ram Madhav from Andhra and P Muralidhar Rao from Telangana ware the national general secretaries in the previous term.
Now, they were dropped from the list of the national executive. It is not known whether the party is going to entrust them with any other task.
One wonders how the BJP can expect to come to power in either of the Telugu states with this poor representation in the national executive.
When there are no positions, who will take care of party’s growth in the Telugu states?
