Two Telangana leaders in the race for the BJP President post?

The ruling BJP is all set to choose its new National President as a successor to the current chief, JP Nadda. Political circles are abuzz with speculations that BJP is likely to announce the name of its new President on March 15th. Meanwhile, the groundwork for finalising the President is in full swing in New Delhi.

Apparently, the BJP is favouring a leader from the South to head the party this time around. To improve the party’s future prospects in Telangana and Karnataka, where the Congress is in reign, the BJP is said to be considering senior leaders and ministers G. Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay Kumar from Telangana and Prahlad Joshi from Karnataka, respectively. In addition, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupender Yadav are the other two leaders who are the frontrunners to become the next BJP President.

Sources close to the development have confirmed that BJP’s ideological backbone, RSS, has already approved the candidate who will be sworn in as the party’s new National President. Senior leaders Manohar Lal Khattar and Manoj Sinha may also make a surprise entry as the party chief at the last minute. The presidential election was supposed to be held in January, but it was postponed due to the Delhi assembly elections.

Both G. Kishan Reddy and Bandi Sanjay have been currently serving as the Minister of Coal & Mines and Minister of State for Home Affairs, respectively. Both the senior leaders from Telangana had their roots in the RSS and also have the blessings of PM Narendra Modi. With BJP determined to trounce Congress in the next general elections in Telangana, choosing either Kishan Reddy or Bandi Sanjay will help the saffron party gain more strength in the region. In this scenario, will a Telugu leader take charge of the Lotus party for the third time after Bangaru Laxman and M. Venkaiah Naidu?