Hyderabad: Telangana was left without representation in the BJP’s new national office-bearers’ team, becoming the only southern state to draw a blank in the list announced by party president Nitin Nabin on Monday. This is the first time since the formation of Telangana that no leader from the state has found a place among the BJP’s national office-bearers.The absence of a Telangana leader has come as a surprise within the state BJP, particularly as the national leadership has been viewing Telangana as a key political turf and growth centre in south India.In contrast, all other southern states have found representation in the new team. Andhra Pradesh is represented by Daggubati Purandeswari and Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, while Karnataka’s Prof M Nagaraja has been included as a national vice-president. From Tamil Nadu, Dr M Venkateshan has been appointed national secretary, while Kerala has K Surendran and Anil Antony as national secretaries.Ram Madhav, who is originally from Andhra Pradesh, has also found a place in the team, though he has been accommodated under the Delhi quota.Several Telangana leaders have held important positions in the party’s national organisational structure in the past. DK Aruna served as a national vice-president, while Bandi Sanjay Kumar was appointed national general secretary after completing his term as Telangana BJP president.MP Laxman served as national president of the OBC Morcha, while S Kumar was a secretary of the party’s SC Morcha. During Amit Shah’s tenure as BJP national president, Muralidhar Rao served as a national general secretary.The development has triggered disappointment and speculation within the Telangana BJP, particularly as several leaders had approached the party high command days before the announcement, seeking consideration for positions.There are murmurs within the party over whether continuing complaints, factional differences and internal disputes influenced the high command’s decision to leave the state without representation.“We expected at least a secretary post. The high command might have other plans. We need to look at the cabinet expansion too,” said a top leader privy to the developments.The decision comes against the backdrop of the BJP’s efforts to expand its footprint in Telangana and its repeated projection of the state as one of its strongest political bases in south India.
