HYDERABAD: The TRS received a shock on Friday barely three weeks before the Munugode Assembly constituency byelection with one of its senior leaders Dr Boora Narasaiah Goud, a former Lok Sabha member, deciding to join the BJP.
Dr Goud’s decision is reported to have been facilitated by Telangana BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who had in the byelections to Dubbak and Huzurabad played a crucial role in turning the tide for the BJP.
Dr Goud represented Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency in Parliament, and was a strong votary, and probably the lone voice in the TRS, for nominating candidate from the Backward Classes for the November 3 bypoll.
All his efforts failed, including pitching himself as the possible TRS candidate when party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced former Munugode MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy as the party candidate for the byelection.
On Friday, Dr Goud was in New Delhi, as was Sanjay. Dr Goud’s departure from the TRS when it needed to present a picture of solidarity among its ranks is being viewed as yet another hit by Sanjay just when it could matter the most for the BJP.
It may be recalled that in the run-up to the Dubbak bypoll, Sanjay managed to get a lot of focus on the harassment by police of party candidate Raghunandan Rao. In the process of highlighting the police action, he got arrested, an action that helped consolidate BJP support in Dubbak.
Similarly, when Rajendar was facing a sustained onslaught from the TRS during the Huzurabad byelection, Sanjay, who was on his Praja Sangrama Yatra picked on Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s warning to farmers not to plant paddy with his comment, “vari vestey vuri (planting paddy is suicide),” and made it one of the rallying slogans for the BJP. He kept hammering away on it, which is believed to have helped make the crucial difference in support to Rajendar that ultimately saw him win in bypoll.
Now, by facilitating Dr Goud’s entry into the BJP — he is expected to have meetings with Union home minister Amit Shah, and party president J.P. Nadda in Delhi – Sanjay is being seen as the architect of yet another well-timed move to further degrade the TRS.
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