Visakhapatnam MP Kambhampati Hari Babu, who resigned from the post Bharatiya Janata Party Andhra Pradesh unit chief post, is likely to get a bumper chance at the Centre.
Reports from New Delhi say, Hari Babu might be inducted into the cabinet of Narendra Modi shortly.
There are a few vacancies in the Union cabinet now -- arising out of the resignation of two TDP ministers – P Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Y S Chowdary and others in the north. So, Hari Babu might fill the gap to some extent.
So far, there is no representation to the BJP from the Telugu states. There was Bandaru Dattatreya till last year, but he was sacked for reasons known only to Modi. If Hari Babu gets the cabinet berth, the BJP in Andhra get some boost, say party sources.
There is also another reason for the BJP leadership thinking of inducting Hari Babu into the Central cabinet.
There has been a general feeling among the BJP leaders in Andhra that Hari Babu had been softer towards the TDP in general and chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in particular because of the simple reason that he belongs to the same community as that of Naidu.
In fact, he was made the state BJP chief only with the lobbying of Naidu with present Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu so as to see that the BJP played a second fiddle to the TDP.
Now that Hari Babu had resigned from the state BJP chief post, there is a possibility that he might tilt towards the TDP in the coming days, if the BJP has few chances of growing. And Chandrababu Naidu might offer him the Visakhapatnam MP seat in 2019, if he joins the TDP.
In order to avoid this situation, the BJP national leadership is trying to keep him loyal to the BJP by offering him Union cabinet post, say sources.
