Former MLC N. Ramchander Rao to take charge as BJP State president on Tuesday

Former MLC and advocate N. Ramchander Rao has been chosen by the central leadership to become the next president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Telangana on Monday. He was the only candidate left in the fray when nominations were closed and is to be formally declared as the president on Tuesday at a special convention.

Top party sources said a top BJP functionary from Delhi called up the State leadership and informed about the decision to name Mr. Rao as the next party chief. He will be replacing Union Minister for Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy who took over as the chief just before the Assembly polls unexpectedly replacing the then president and now Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar.

Amid beehive of activity at the State office with leaders thronging with their supporters, there was high drama of Goshamahal MLA T. Raja Singh storming out in protest for ‘not being allowed’ to file his nomination papers for the party chief and also announced quitting the party. His charge was later denied by the party.

Mr. Rao had filed his nomination papers in the evening with election in-charge and Union Minister of State for Labour and MSMEs Shobha Karandlaje. He was accompanied by senior leaders, including Mr. Kishan Reddy, Union Minister of State for Home Bandi Sanjay Kumar, national general secretary Sunil Bansal, MPs – Konda Vishveshwar Reddy, D.K. Aruna and others.

A Supreme Court lawyer and former member of Bar Council of India, Mr. Rao has been a contender for the post along with few other MPs, including Malakgiri’s Eatala Rajender. The former MLC has risen from the ranks having made his mark as a student leader in Osmania University when he was in the party’s student wing ABVP, has been a party general secretary and in charge of the recent membership enrolment programme.

Despite a clamour for appointing a Backward Class leader as the president, the central leadership seems to have chosen Mr. Rao, a Brahmin. Last time a person from the community was made party chief has been former Sikkim Governor V. Rama Rao who was the president of the State unit for undivided Andhra Pradesh for two terms in the 90s.

Party sources said Mr. Rao had a strong backing from the Sangh and despite hectic lobbying by some MPs including in the social media, the central leadership seems to have kept faith in him, at least till the next Assembly elections.

His main opponent Mr. Rajender had his own backers in Delhi but his open praise of former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in more than one instance on the Kaleshwaram project was a give away that he knew what was coming. Though Mr. Kishan Reddy continued to back him, others were not so kind and ensured the word reached the central leadership. Incidentally, he was not present when Mr. Rao was filing his papers.

Earlier, Union Minister of State for Industries Shobha Karandlaje told the media that the party chief will be a consensus choice based on her interaction with the cadre. “Our fight is against the Congress governments in Karnataka and Telangana which have become the ‘ATMs’ for their party high command having come to power with ‘false guarantees’, she said “There is no money for welfare or development in both States. What has Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy done so far? No money to even repair potholes. Both governments are total failures,” she charged.

Mr. Sanjay Kumar too told the media that the high command decides who has to be entrusted with what responsibility and every committed worker has to abide by that decision. “There is nothing wrong in aspiring to become the president. But the final decision will be made by the high command,” he asserted.