The organisational changes effected by the BJP in four states on Tuesday allude to an impending reshuffle in the government that may coincide with the expansion of the NDA. The new appointments show that the ruling party is counting on political imports from Congress to deliver in states where it is weak.
The Telangana reshuffle, for one, is on the expected lines. By sending Union Minister G Kishan Reddy as party chief, the BJP has sought to hand over the reins of the party to an old guard who can take all factions along in the faction-ridden state unit and act to foil Congress’ attempts to mobilise the Reddy community under the current PCC Chief Revanth Reddy. The outgoing president Bandi Sanjay is likely to be accommodated at the Centre as a Union minister.
The most interesting appointment in Telangana is that of Etala Rajender, the campaign committee chief. The friend-turned-foe of state Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, Etala, the first finance minister of the state, has been a left-of-the-center politician whose fortunes have risen exponentially since he joined the BJP last year.
He won the prestigious Hazurabad bypolls by a fair margin, and his subsequent elevation in the party indicates that the thrust of the BJP’s campaign in Telangana would be on wooing the numerically dominant backward community, which traditionally has been TDP supporters but had shifted allegiance to BRS after the division of Andhra Pradesh. Etala also belongs to the BC Mudiraj community.
By appointing former Union minister D Purandeshwari as state president and Kiran Kumar Reddy as a national executive member in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP has tried to strike a balance between the TDP and YSRCP.
Purandeshwari, who was earlier with the Congress, is the daughter of former Andhra CM N T Rama Rao and the sister-in-law of TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu. By nominating a Kamma leader as the state president, the BJP has not left the field open for Naidu in the opposition space. At the same time, the party would expect Kiran Reddy, the last Congress CM of undivided Andhra, to get traction among the Reddy community, which is Jagan’s core support base.
Sunil Jhakhar’s elevation as Punjab BJP chief is aimed at consolidating Hindu votes in the state. The former Gurdaspur MP and state Congress president is said to be close to former CM Capt Amarinder Singh and his appointment hints towards a possible realignment of forces in the state. Akali-BJP détente is also on the table, which can help the NDA recreate its Hindu-Sikh combination in the border state.
The appointment of Babulal Marandi as Jharkhand’s President is a clear message that the next elections in the state will be contested under his leadership. The first CM of Jharkhand, Marandi, rejoined BJP after a stint outside the party. His Jharkhand Vikas Morcha even contested an election in alliance with the Congress but later merged with the BJP.
BJP has been a natural choice of the non-tribal communities in Jharkhand, perhaps the reason why the party experimented by appointing Raghubar Das as CM in 2014.
After losing to Hemant Soren’s JMM in 2019, BJP is going back to the basics and is attempting to top up its existing support base with a slice of tribal votes.