Senior netas shun Bandi Sanjay's padayatra, expose chinks in party

Hyderabad: While the Telangana BJP chief Bandi Sanjay has been undertaking his padayatra, the seniors in the party fail to fall in line. Most of the seniors who were branded as dissidents were yet to be part of the padayatra even as national president JP Nadda and Amit Shah are slated to visit the State in ten days.

The Telangana BJP chief's second phase of Praja Sangrama Yatra entered 20th day on Tuesday. While some of the party leaders are joining the padayatra, the seniors are not seen during the last three weeks. According to the party sources, those branded as dissidents in the party have been avoiding the padayatra. Party leaders like Dharma Rao, E Lakshminarayana, Rajeshwar Rao, Jaipal, Chinta Sambamurthy, K Ramulu were not seen in the padayatra.

Besides the dissidents the seniors like MP Dharmapuri Arvind was also not seen in the last 20 days of the padayatra. Sources said that the MP was not keen to attend the padayatra and was willing to attend public meeting. However, the party MLA Raghunandan Rao, who alleged that he was not allowed to speak in the public meetings during the padayatra attend the padayatra and meeting on Tuesday. Another senior leader Nagurao Namoji was seen attending the padayatra.

The party leaders expressed concern over the differences among the party leaders particularly the seniors at a time when the senior leaders were visiting the State. Party's national president JP Nadda is slated to visit the State and address a public meeting at 4 pm at MVS Arts College Grounds at Mahabubnagar on May 5. Along with this, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also slated to visit the State on May 14 and would address a public meeting at Tukkuguda.

However, party leaders claimed that there were no differences in the party. A senior leader of the party said that the seniors were given the responsibilities in their constituencies hence they were not seen. Everything will be set right when the party leadership ask them to fall in line, the BJP leader added.

Meanwhile, the padayatra of Bandi Sanjay is likely to be curtailed and some constituencies would be skipped. The BJP leader was to travel 13 km everyday but the distance travelled was 5 to 7 km everyday because of the health issues as Sanjay suffered sunstroke. Party sources said that the padayatra may be skipped in Nagarkurnol and Kalwakurthy constituencies so as to reach Tukkuguda by May 14 the day of public meeting of Amit Shah. Presently the yatra is in Devarakadra constituency in Mahabubnagar.