All is not well in Andhra's BJP

Vijayawada: All is not well in the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is not able to grow much in Andhra Pradesh despite its plans to increase its strength in South India.

The problems within the party complicated further with several prominent leaders giving a miss to the State Executive meeting held at Bhimavaram in West Godavari on Tuesday to chalk out its preparations for the ensuring elections even as its so-called alliance partner Jana Sena Party (JSP) President and film actor K Pawan Kalyan dropping enough hints that he will opt to sail with TDP to prevent split in non-YSRCP votes. JSP had won just one Assembly seat though it could poll 9 per cent of votes in 2019, Pawan Kalyan said underlining the need to fight unitedly to defeat YSRCP.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs and in-charge for AP affairs V Muralidharan denied any differences with JSP at Bhimavaram while the party's MP and national spokesman G V L Narsimha Rao said they are getting ready to file a chargesheet against YSRCP government and contest 2024 elections in alliance with Pawan Kalyan.

The BJP leaders at the executive committee meeting ruled out any alliance with TDP or YSRCP saying both the parties believed in 'family rule.' State president Somu Veeraju said they are in alliance with the people of the State to implement the development agenda introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an effective manner.

Incidentally, former BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana, party national general secretary and former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeswari and businessman Y S (Sujana) Chowdhary did not attend the meeting. Kanna, who is sulking following removal of six district unit presidents appointed by him during his tenure by Somuraju, is not seeing eye to eye with him. His supporters allege that Somuraju is weakening BJP's growth due to his tacit understanding with the YSRCP amid reports that Kanna is toying with the idea of joining TDP or JSP.