The dropping of Bandi Sanjay as the president of Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party president has lent credence to the rumours that there is a secret understanding between the saffron party and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi led by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
Though the development is totally unexpected, as the talk of replacing Bandi Sanjay with Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy as the state BJP chief has been going in the media circles for quite some time.
However, there was some hope within the party leaders and cadres close to Sanjay that the high command might change his mind, as the Sangh Parivar has not given his approval for the change of guard in the Telangana BJP.
For, Sanjay has managed to breathe a new vigour and energy into the party in the last three years and made it a formidable force in the party. None other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi had patted the back of Sanjay several times for bringing a new life to the party.
Yet, the BJP national leadership has given more importance to returning to power at the Centre for the third time, rather than capturing power in Telangana.
“That is why, it has entered into a sort of quid pro quo with KCR,” sources said.
Apparently, the BJP national leaders have realised that KCR has the capacity to upset its calculations with his money power and clout among the other opposition parties.
At one stage, he had even offered to fund the election campaign of entire opposition parties, if he was made the convenor of the opposition front.
So, the BJP used its old game of using his investigation agencies to target KCR. Apart from the secret probe into the financial irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project, the Centre used the Enforcement Directorate to target his daughter Kavitha in the Delhi liquor policy scam.
Subsequently, KCR toned down toned down his attack on the BJP and focussed on the Congress. He has also kept his national ambitions at bay and has not become party to the attempt of the other opposition parties in the country to put up a joint fight against the BJP.
The only hurdle in this secret understanding is Bandi Sanjay, who has been going all out to attack KCR and his family. And the BRS leadership has realised that as long as Sanjay is there in the hot seat, the BJP continues to be a threat to it and KCR cannot come to power again.
“So, they prevailed upon the BJP central leadership to drop Sanjay and bring in a softer person like Kishan Reddy. The recent meeting of KTR with Delhi bosses sealed the deal,” sources said.
After the Telangana elections, KCR would come in handy for the BJP. He would expand his BRS to other states and split the anti-BJP votes, so that Modi can come back to power at the Centre again!
