HYDERABAD: In the wake of the BJP nominating R Krishnaiah for Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh, an interesting discussion is taking place among the saffron party cadres over whether the party, from now, was going to give prominent place to the Backward Classes in its scheme of things to capture power in Telangana.
The party has already sent senior BC leader Dr K Laxman to Rajya Sabha member and has entrusted him with major responsibilities in the party at the national level. Apart from Dr Laxman, the saffron party has three of the four Lok Sabha members from Telangana from backward classes.
Of them Bandi Sanjay Kumar is union minister of state, while the other two being Eatala Rajender and Arvind Dharmapuri. Now that Krishniaha is being sent to Rajya Sabha, he will be an addition to BJP’s repertoire of BC leaders from Telangana.
The nomination of Krishnaiah to the Upper House is also being seen as a means to neutralise the influence BC leader and MLC B Mahesh Kumar Goud who is now heading the TPCC.
As the OBCs constitute more than 50 per cent of the population, the saffron party is contemplating to entrust representatives from major castes among the BCs with major responsibilities like sending them to legislative houses or rewarding them with party sinecures at the state and national level.
But what is impeding the party from pushing its strategy forward is the lack of unity among the BC leaders in the party as all of them are in the race for the position of the president of the state unit of the party.
Senior leaders recall the meeting the party MLAs and MPs had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last month where he asked them not to maintain any groups as it will dent the image of the party. The leaders state that Modi gets survey reports on the activities of party leaders on a monthly basis. He is understood to have asked them to work with a sense of dedication, sinking their differences as attaining power in the state was not very difficult.
On the other hand, there is a section of leaders from the OBC communities in the party which expresses its dissatisfaction over accommodating Krishnaiah in the Rajya Sabha, They argue in subdued voices whether the party had not found even one suitable BC leader in the party to be sent to the upper house.
They say that if the party goes on picking up leaders from outside it may send wrong signals that the party has no leaders worth their salt.