Venkayya Naidu’s plan for filling the AP BJP with members of his community seems to have backfired for the moment.
When Venkayya negotiated the BJP-TDP deal, he also saw to it that K Hari Babu, a fellow Kamma, from Vizag was made the AP BJP President.
Similarly, he negotiated Purandeswari’s entry into the BJP and saw to it that Kapu leader Kanna Laxmi Narayana did not get due prominence in the BJP.
Apparently, when Bothsa Satyanarayana first wanted to join the BJP but Venkayya on advice from CBN and Co thwarted his entry leaving the Vizianagaram leader with no other option but to join YSRCP.
Venkayya in his capacity as Union Minister also pushed through several deals for the TDP. He was in the process of trying to reshape the BJP Party in AP as another Kamma stronghold.
But the BJP saw through his game plan and cleverly removed him from the picture in a respectful manner by making him a rubber stamp authority.
Now, the Kammas in the BJP are a worried lot. Hari Babu who got a lot of prestige for defeating YS Vijayamma in Vizag and was elevated to party president has now been stripped of that post.
Fact of the matter is: Hari Babu did not win, the peace-loving people of Vizag voted against Vijayamma because, they fell prey to the rumours spread by the TDP that Vizag would become another Kadapa, ridden with faction-politics if YSRCP were to win there.
In fact, in the 2004 elections, all the Kammas rallied behind Hari Babu but he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Brahmin Congress leader and Chanakya of Uttarandhra, Dronamraju Satyanarayana.
With Hari Babu out of favour, Daggubati Purandeswari is one of the prime contenders. She is one of the great females who refused to resign from her post of Union Minister when in the Congress, even after bifurcation decision was announced.
Now Purandeswari is said to be worried about taking up the post of President because of people’s anger with the BJP. Also, it would mean criticising the TDP severely which might upset the Kammas. In a sense, she is caught between the devil and the deep sea.
We have to wait and see as to how the drama unfolds in the coming days.
