Warangal: The growing popularity of the saffron party is reflected as quite a few leaders vie for the BJP Warangal district president post.
Although the party didn’t do well in the 2023 Assembly elections, no dearth of leaders is willing to lead the party in the district.
Since the reorganisation of the erstwhile Warangal into six districts, more leaders emerged, besides a steady flow of leaders from other parties.
Warangal Urban Cooperative Bank Limited chairman Errabelli Pradeep Rao lost to Congress’ Konda Surekha by around 15,000 votes. In fact, BJP stood second in the election, reducing sitting BRS MLA Nannapuneni Narender to third position.
Wardhannapet is another constituency in the Warangal district that has a significant presence. BJP leaders Vannala Sriramulu (1985) and Takkallapalli Rajeshwar Rao (1989) represented from Wardhannapet. Narsampet constituency appeared fertile ground for the BJP until Revuri Prakash Reddy was at the helm of BJP affairs in the constituency. However, his last-minute shift to the Congress left the party in disarray. He contested on a Congress ticket and won from Parkal.
Notwithstanding all this, the BJP leadership believes that it could turn the tide in its favour if it focused more on Warangal district. The BJP leadership is keen to appoint a formidable leader as the district president.
Incumbent president Ganta Ravi Kumar and senior leaders Malladi Tirupathi Reddy, Vannala Venkatramana, Siddam Naresh Patel, and Gurumurthy Shiva Kumar seem to be frontrunners for the post. All these leaders are close to the BJP State leadership and are using their good offices to clinch the post.
A brief of BJP’s prominence in the erstwhile Warangal district: Right from the days of Bharatiya Jana Sangh (which evolved as BJP in 1980), the party has a fair base in the erstwhile Warangal district.
It had won Parkal Assembly seat thrice, Wardhannapet and Sayampet twice, and Hanamkonda once. It may be mentioned here that Hanamkonda and Sayampet seats were abolished following the delimitation of constituencies in 2008. The BJP also clinched Mayor post of affairs of Warangal Municipal Corporation in 2000.
The defeat of P V Narasimha Rao in the hands of Chandupatla Janga Reddy from Hanamkonda Lok Sabha constituency (which which does not exist now) in 1984 is seen as the BJP’s significant triumph.
