BJP Shocks Telugu Leaders!

The BJP leaders in Telugu states were in for a shock with their party seniors in Delhi releasing a list of Rajya Sabha nominees devoid of at least one name from either Andhra Pradesh or Telangana. For the last few days, there was talk that that the party high command would select a specific leader, if the BJP had to choose someone from the Telugu states for the Rajya Sabha.

The party leaders in the states hoped that the BJP high command would give some power to them in the Telugu states to fight against the YCP in Andhra Pradesh and the TRs in Telangana by handpicking a few of them for the Upper House in the Parliament. However, none of the leaders appeared in the list of nominees, which included 16 names from 8 states.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka was given a second chance to be a RS member. Union minister Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra also could make his way into the list.

There was intense discussion about likelihood of BJP leaders from Telangana being chosen, ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls. After Amit Shah’s tour to Telangana, there is talk that the BJP leadership is of the opinion that the party leaders should strive further to clinch power in Telangana in next elections. There have been huge changes in the Telangana BJP party after Shah’s tour. According to sources, there is talk that the BJP honchos were of the opinion that the party leaders playing a prominent role in the state should have some power.

As part of it, there was buzz that the party leadership was planning to send some BJP leaders from Telangana to the Rajya Sabha and in such a case, a few names were selected.

However, dashing the hopes of the Telangana leaders, the party high command released the following list.

Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaggesh (Karntaka)

Piyush Goyal, Anil Sukhdev Rao Bonde (Maharashtra)

Lakshmikant Vajpayee, Radhamohan Agarwal, Surendra Singh Nagar, Baburam NIshad, Darshana Singh, Singitha Yadav (Uttar Pradesh)

Satish Chandra, Sambhu Saran (Bihar)

Krishnalal (Haryana)

Susri Kavita Patidar (Madhya Pradesh)

Ghansyam Tiwari (Rajasthan)

Kalpana Saina (Uttarakhand)

Does this mean even the BJP does not have any hopes of winning in either of the Telugu states during the next elections?