VIJAYAWADA : The BJP is unlikely to appoint the party’s floor leader for the first session of the Assembly commencing Monday.
The BJP, which went to the elections in alliance with the TDP and Jana Sena Party, had won eight of the 10 seats it contested. The TDP, which led the NDA in the State, gave one Cabinet berth to the BJP.
It is learnt that there are quite a few contenders for the floor leader post among the seven BJP legislators. The BJP is weighing seniority, caste and regional equations while considering the names for the floor leader as well as Whip posts.
“If a situation comes where it has to select one leader from several for any post within the party or in the government, it adopts the policy of giving priority to those who are in the party for long rather than those who joined it from other parties. The same criterion may be adopted in this case too,’’ a senior leader said. The BJP which won three Lok Sabha seats in the State, gave priority to first-time MP from Narasapuram and party loyalist Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma when it had to pick one MP for the Union Cabinet berth from AP, putting aside former Union minister D Purandeswari and former Rajya Sabha MP CM Ramesh as both of them started their political career in other parties. Similar was the case with the choice of Y Satya Kumar for the State Cabinet post.
When it comes to remaining seven MLAs, P Vishnu Kumar Raju and Kamineni Srinivas represented the party in the 2014-19 Assembly, while PV Pardhasarahi is a first time MLA. The four other MLAs -- C Adinarayana Reddy, Y Satyanarayana (Sujana) Chowdary, N Eswara Rao and N Ramakrishna Reddy — had joined the BJP from other parties. Ramakrishna Reddy and Eswara Rao joined the BJP just before the elections, and it is unlikely that they will be chosen either as the Legislature Party Leader or the Whip, sources said.
Of the remaining, Vishnu Kumar Raju, two-time MLA from Visakhapatnam North, stands a chance to be the floor leader. However, with the party MP from Kshatriya community inducted into the Union Cabinet, it has to be seen if the BJP selects another leader from the same community for the post. Adinarayana Reddy, a senior leader from Kadapa, may also be considered apart from Kamineni for the post. However, the BJP has put on hold the appointment of the two posts for the time being, sources added.