Reddy a ‘ray of hope’ for BJP; more Cong leaders may jump ship

HYDERABAD: A day after he joined the saffron party, the last chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh, N Kiran Kumar Reddy, was in Delhi on Saturday, where he met BJP chief JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa. The meeting signifies the importance the BJP attaches to its latest acquisition in the South.

According to sources, the BJP high command has asked Kiran Kumar Reddy to attract Reddy community leaders from other parties in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Kiran Kumar Reddy hails from the Rayalaseema region and has maintained contact with many senior leaders, including ministers, MPs, MLAs, and MLCs from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, having worked closely with them while in Congress.

The BJP has welcomed many senior leaders from the Reddy community, such as DK Aruna, AP Jithender Reddy, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, and others into the party. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s joining is another example of the party’s efforts to strengthen its position in the Reddy community, which is dominant in state politics. 

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The BJP high command views Kiran Kumar Reddy’s involvement as a good sign for the party’s future, particularly as two of these three states – Karnataka and Telangana –  are heading toward Assembly elections. Kiran Kumar Reddy is expected to campaign in Kalyana Karnataka districts like Raichur, Ballari, Koppal, Chitradurga, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Kolar, Bengaluru Rural, and other places connected with the Rayalaseema area of Andhra Pradesh. 

He is also likely to call his former colleagues from Congress in AP and Telangana and invite them to join the BJP. The party believes that several prominent leaders in Telangana will be more amenable to joining the BJP if invited to do so by Reddy. The former CM’s focus will be on Andhra Pradesh, where veteran Congress leaders who have been silent and have not contested elections since the bifurcation of the state are likely to get in touch with him.