Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar. (Twitter)
Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s explanation does not sit well with members of his own party as well, who feel he needs to be more careful in choosing his words
Are cracks starting to appear in the Telangana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)?
Telangana BJP MP Dharmapuri Aravind recently turned heads when he said that it would be better if Telangana party chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar takes back his comment on Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC’s poem. He had said that the party does not support the statements of the detainee Sanjay Kumar.
Aravind said: “Though the statement was a popular phrase in Telangana, one needs to be careful and sensitive when one uses such phrases. Sanjay is an individual, Member of Parliament and President of the state unit of the party. When you are the state unit president of a national party, the position is not the power center but the coordination center.”
Another BJP leader, Shekhar Rao Perala supported Arvind’s statements and said that the undemocratic actions of the state chief were holding the BJP back. “The president’s immature inappropriate words, affairs, dictatorial and undemocratic actions are the reason for this situation in the BJP,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
He said though there is no ‘use and throw’ culture in the saffron party, the BJP chief is promoting it. “Currently the position of our party is like three steps forward and six steps back. This is due to the leadership of the state. It is self inflicted. Even though the central party is giving us support in large numbers, we are not able to utilize it.”
When News18 contacted him, he said that he stood by what he had written in the post.
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Significantly, during a program, Sanjay Kumar had asked whether the Enforcement Directorate (ED) would kiss the criminal instead of arresting him. K Kavita is currently under the scanner for his alleged role in the Delhi liquor scam. BRS workers protested against the derogatory remarks and filed cases in various police stations. The Telangana Women’s Commission has also issued a notice to her.
Following the uproar, Sanjay Kumar’s office issued a statement saying: “The statement used by the BJP leader is a common phrase used in Telugu, which means if someone commits a crime, would you appreciate it?” Or punish him?”
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However, this explanation did not go down well with Arvind as well as his own party members that Sanjay Kumar needed to be more careful in choosing his words.
On Monday too, the Telangana BJP president was trolled on social media for taking the past on the film RRR. In 2020, he threatened director Rajamouli with violence if the revolutionary tribal hero – Komaram Bheem – shown wearing a skull cap was not removed. After the leader congratulated the team for winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, he was trolled for his previous take.
Not long ago, there was a rumor in the political circles that the BJP was going to change its president in Telangana. Though Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy put an end to all speculation in January by announcing no plans to change the state leadership, sources say the rivalry among party members for the chief ministerial candidate continues.
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