Former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is most likely to be the face of Bharatiya Janata Party in Andhra Pradesh by 2019 elections.
According to highly placed sources, Kiran had held secret talks with top BJP leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi in the recent past.
He was sounded that he might have to lead the party in the next 2019 elections. Apparently, Kiran had put a condition that the BJP should cut off its alliance with the Telugu Desam Party if it wants him to lead the party. However, the BJP leadership wants some time to get the things crystallised.
Sources said the BJP leadership is not happy with the way TDP president, AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is trying to defame the Modi government on the special status issue.
Obviously, Naidu wants to pass the buck on to the BJP and secure all the political mileage to the TDP. The confrontationist approach of some TDP leaders is also not going down well with the BJP.
However, the BJP is not in a hurry to severe ties with the TDP right away, as the party is still organizationally weak in AP.
It does not have a strong local leadership. Under these circumstances, the party has seen a capable leader in Kiran who fought tooth and nail with the Congress high command against AP bifurcation.
He might provide a ray of hope to the BJP in Seemandhra. In the meantime, he wants to bring out his book exposing Naidu and the Congress, which would definitely fetch advantage to the BJP by next elections, say sources.
