The sudden outburst of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Visakhapatnam Vishnu Kumar Raju against the Chandrababu Naidu government in Andhra Pradesh, accusing it of being the No. 1 corrupt in the country is an indication how much frustrated the BJP leaders are with regard to continuing alliance with the TDP in the state.
Not just Raju, other BJP leaders like Somu Veerraju, Kanna Lakshminarayana and D Purandeshwari, are also periodically giving vent to their feelings against the Naidu government.
They are of the view that the BJP would never grow independently in the state, as long as it plays second fiddle to the TDP.
In fact, BJP president Amit Shah, too, had given a call to the party leaders in the past that they should strive hard to make the BJP a strong force to reckon with in the state. He had appointed a sub-committee with leaders like Purandeswari, Kanna Lakshmi Narayana and Kavuri Samba Siva Rao to attract leaders from other parties and strengthen the BJP. But, it did not work.
The biggest hurdle for the BJP to grow independently in AP is none other than its senior leader and Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, who has close links with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Venkaiah is virtually dominating the Andhra BJP and at all public meetings, his only job is to praise Chandrababu. Not only that he is making all the union ministers like Nirmala Sitaraman, Uma Bharati, Suresh Prabhu and Nitin Gadkari to lavish praises on Naidu.
“As long as Venkaiah is there, the BJP cannot grow in AP. He has ensured that his follower K Hari Babu continued as the state BJP president and the latter is bargaining for a few posts and positions like MLCs with Chandrababu Naidu. So, how can Amit Shah hope to build BJP in AP?” a senior BJP leader argued.
