In a strange development, the Bharatiya Janata Party high command on Saturday announced continuation of Visakhapatnam MP Kambhampati Hari Babu as the president of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh.
According to reports reaching from Delhi, Hari Babu would continue for a second term as the BJP chief. He has been asked to form a fresh executive committee of the state BJP unit within 15 days. The new team will obviously continue till the next elections.
Kambhampati, a known disciple of Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu, is known to be adopting a soft stand towards Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
Even when many other BJP leaders in Andhra BJP, including Somu Veerraju, P Vishnu Kumar Raju, Daggubati Purandeshwari and Kanna Lakshminarayana, were making scathing attack on the TDP and Naidu, Hari Babu never uttered a word and maintained cordial relationship with the BJP’s alliance partner.
It was rather surprising that the BJP top leadership retained Hari Babu despite knowing his soft corner towards Chandrababu Naidu. If the party wants to have an alliance with the YSR Congress party, it will be the most embarrassing situation for him.
In the last general elections, Hari Babu defeated YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy’s mother Vijayalakshmi in Visakhapatnam and during the campaign, he made strong comments against the YSRC.
It is not exactly known what the strategy of BJP chief Amit Shah is in continuing Hari Babu: whether he wants to extend an olive branch to Chandrababu Naidu and continue alliance with the TDP or he wants to force Hari Babu to join hands with the YSRC. Watch out.
