Miffed over not getting tickets for Lok Sabha, senior BJP leaders skip party meeting in Vijayawada

VIJAYAWADA: There is a clear divide among BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh and the rift became apparent when key senior leaders failed to turn up for a meeting with the party high command on Tuesday.

The BJP had organised a meeting of party office bearers at the BJP State office in Vijayawada. BJP central leaders Siddharth Nath Singh and Arun Singh participated in this meeting in the presence of candidates who were given tickets to the Lok Sabha elections.

However, senior State leaders including former BJP State president Somu Veerraju, Rajya Sabha member GVL Narasimha Rao and senior leaders Vishnu Vardhan Reddy and Satyakumar did not turn up for the meeting. They were apparently miffed that despite being with the party through thick and thin, they were sidelined and Lok Sabha tickets were given to those who defected from other parties.

Except for Srinivas Varma, who would be contesting from Narsapuram, all the other MP candidates like Purandeswari, CM Ramesh, Kiran Kumar Reddy, Kothapalli Geetha and Vara Prasad have jumped ship from other parties. This has not gone down well with the other senior leaders.

The party high command wants Satyakumar to contest from Dharmavaram Assembly seat and Somu Veerraju from Anaparthi but the leaders are reluctant to contest from those seats. The BJP has apparently proposed to its alliance partner, the TDP, to offer Rajahmundry Rural or Urban Assembly seat to field Somu Veerraju.

While the BJP leaders said that Somu Veerraju did not attend the meeting on Tuesday as he was unwell, they were unsure about why the other three senior leaders did not turn up.

Meanwhile, the BJP would finalise its Assembly candidates in Tuesday's meeting. Apparently, the party has finalised that it would contest from these nine of the 10 Assembly seats- Vijayawada West, Badvel, Dharmavaram, Jammalamadugu, Kaikaluru, Vizag North, Adoni, Paderu and Etcherla. For the remaining one seat, the BJP is likely to propose to the TDP to offer the Rajahmundry Urban or Rural Assembly instead of Anaparthi constituency.

There is speculation that the BJP would also like to contest from the Rajampet Lok Sabha seat as the party feels that it could influence about one lakh Kshatriya community votes by nominating Rajus (Kshatriyas). Jaganmohan Raju from the TDP and Chengal Raju from the BJP are likely to get a ticket from there.