It was only on Friday that Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy assumed charge as the president of Bharatiya Janata Party Telangana unit; and within 24 hours, he had face disgruntlement in the party.
Reason: Kishan Reddy invited former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy for the event at the Telangana BJP headquarters, while he was taking charge and even gave him an opportunity to speak at the programme.
The presence of Kiran Kumar Reddy caused a lot of embarrassment to the BJP leaders from Telangana. In fact, they strongly defended senior BJP leader and former MP M Vijayashanti for walking out of the programme, after noticing the presence of Kiran Kumar Reddy.
She made her stand very clear that she was feeling uncomfortable to share the dais with the person who had once said he would suppress the Telangana movement with an iron foot and hence, she had to leave the place immediately.
Many other Telangana BJP leaders who attended a breakfast meeting attended by state election in-charge Prakash Javadekar, state in-charges Sunil Bansal and Tarun Chugh on Saturday, questioned Kishan Reddy’s intentions to invite Kiran Kumar Reddy.
They expressed displeasure over the presence of Kiran Kumar Reddy, who had tried to stall the creation of a separate State.
They told the BJP national leaders that presence of an Andhra leader like Kiran Kumar Reddy would have a negative impact on the party’s prospects in the forthcoming assembly elections.
They wondered whether it is part of an understanding between the BRS and the BJP.
“We have given a weapon to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi by inviting Kiran Kumar Reddy. The BRS leaders would definitely exploit this to their advantage and question our commitment to Telangana,” a senior BJP leader said.
The state BJP leaders have already taken the matter to the notice of the party high command and have urged the leadership not to allow Andhra Pradesh leaders to interfere in Telangana affairs.
