HYDERABAD: A day after his appointment as the president of the Telangana State BJP, Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy announced that he will take charge of his new post after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the State on July 8.
Denying the reports that he was not happy with being given the new role, he said that he will continue to work as per the instructions of the high command and adhere to the party’s ‘one person one post’ policy.
Addressing the media in New Delhi on Wednesday, Kishan Reddy said that the aim of the BJP was to come to power in the State in the coming Assembly elections and that he is ready to work with everybody to achieve it. Claiming that he had given 100 per cent to whatever responsibility he was entrusted with, he said that he had never solicited any posts from the party.
Significantly, Kishan Reddy skipped the Union Cabinet meeting held earlier in the day in Delhi and remained confined to his residence and even switched off his cell phone. He claimed that he was indisposed during the day and that was why he could not attend the Cabinet meeting.
In another development, incumbent State BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Kishan Reddy were to return together to Hyderabad from Delhi, but that did not happen.
Sanjay stayed back on the pretext of meeting Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw to request the latter to take up new works between the Karimnagar and Kazipet (Hasanparti) railway lines.
Later in the evening, Kishan Reddy flew back to Hyderabad. He was given a grand reception at the airport by BJP MLA and the party’s newly-appointed election management committee chairman Eatala Rajender and other party leaders.
Rajagopal appointed BJP nat’l executive member
The followers of Kishan Reddy and Eatala Rajender carried them on their shoulders amidst drumbeats and sloganeering. Kishan Reddy held a meeting with the party’s core committee and senior leaders after his arrival, where he discussed the arrangements for PM Modi’s visit to the State on July 8.
He is scheduled to go to Warangal on Thursday to review the arrangements for the official programmes and a public meeting of the PM. A meeting of prominent BJP leaders from south Indian States is going to be held in Hyderabad on July 9.
Meanwhile, former MP Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy was appointed BJP national executive member on Wednesday by party national president JP Nadda, according to an order issued by Arun Singh, general secretary and in-charge of the party’s headquarters in Delhi.
Bandi camp comes to terms with change
Hyderabad: There was neither cheer nor business seen at the BJP’s party office in Nampally on Wednesday, even as the party leaders and workers were still trying to come to terms with the central leadership’s decision to change the guard in the party’s State leadership. After former State BJP president Bandi Sanjay announced that he will work under the leadership of G Kishan Reddy, the party’s new State president, the loyalists of the former too accepted the change and decided to move on. Kishan Reddy’s image of having cordial relations with all the leaders is being seen as a way to keep the party united in the context of the turmoil within the party.