As announced earlier, former Telangana health minister Eatala Rajender joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Monday, along with several other leaders including former Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA Enugu Ravinder Reddy.
But what was surprising to everybody was that it was a very simple event and the hype created by Rajender’s followers was glaringly missing.
Unlike the projection given earlier, neither BJP national president J P Nadda nor Union home minister received Rajender into the party.
Instead, Union steels minister Dharmendra Pradhan offered the saffron kanduwa to Rajender and others.
Of course, BJP state leaders including G Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay, Dharmapuri Aravind and others were there at the simple ceremony.
The national BJP leaders did not even talk about what role Rajender would be playing in the party. Instead, only Bandi Sanjay told reporters later that Rajender would get due respect in the party.
And Rajender said he would try to expand the footprints of the BJP across Telangana and also in the rest of South India. He thanked the party leadership for giving him an opportunity.
Within minutes, the profile of Rajender was changed in the social media. The BJP flag replaced the pink background and his picture carrying the saffron kanduwa was made prominent.
He will be returning to Hyderabad on Tuesday morning and address the press in the BJP state headquarters.
It remains to be seen how Rajender will get adjusted to the new role in the saffron party.
