BJP to overhaul Andhra unit for 2019

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will reorganise its Andhra Pradesh unit and bring a new president with an eye on going solo in the 2019 polls, after its four-year alliance with the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) snapped, said a party functionary privy to the plans.

According to the functionary, who doesn’t want to be named, the party has decided to replace state chief Kambhampati Hari Babu, the Lok Sabha member for Visakhapatnam, with legislator Somu Veerraju, who is a known TDP-baiter. An announcement is expected in a day or two, he said.

The party reportedly considered former endowments minister P Manikyala Rao and former state minister Kanna Lakshminarayana for the top job at a meeting of the state’s BJP leaders with BJP national president Amit Shah in New Delhi on March 17.

Rao was the first choice because of his seniority and acceptability among all sections of the party, but he was not interested, the party functionary said.

Rao told reporters on Monday that he recommended Veerraju for the state party chief’s post. “He is more aggressive to take on the TDP,” he said.

Much before the TDP walked out of the alliance in March over the Centre not granting special category status to Andhra Pradesh, Veerraju had been attacking the state’s ruling party and accusing chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu of large-scale corruption in irrigation projects.

Shah has hinted at making party national general secretary Ram Madhav as the BJP in-charge of Andhra Pradesh. Though an official announcement is yet to be made, Madhav has been in touch with party leaders in the state for rejuvenating the cadre to face elections.

According to BJP spokesman Shyam Kishore Jammula, the party will probably go alone in the 2019 elections, at least as the things stand now. “In any case, we won’t have alliance with the TDP and YSR Congress...”

HYDERABAD: