After BRS denial, will Vemulawada MLA Ramesh join BJP amidst his citizenship albatross?

HYDERABAD: While Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief announced candidates for the upcoming Telangana elections on Monday, he retained a majority of the sitting MLAs, except nine of them. Prominent in the list of those MLAs being given the cut is Vemulawada MLA Chennamaneni Ramesh Babu.

While announcing the candidates, KCR mentioned that Ramesh was a fine leader, but he was denied a ticket due to the allegations he was facing regarding his German citizenship. Ramesh was replaced with a ticket for Chelmeda Laxmi Narasimha Rao, a former Congress leader who defected and joined the BRS.

Ramesh was clearly unhappy over his rejection. The Vemulawada MLA, who is currently in Germany, is expected to come back to India on Wednesday and chart out his political future.

There are reports that BJP is eyeing Ramesh and wants him to join the party. Grapevine has it that BJP leader Etala Rajender is initiating discussions with Ramesh and has already promised to give him a ticket from Vemulawada. But his citizenship row is proving to be a thorn in his political life

What is Ramesh's citizenship row?

Ramesh had moved to Germany for his higher education in 1987 and later settled there after obtaining citizenship in 1993. With the intention of contesting elections, Ramesh reapplied for Indian citizenship in March, 2008. But once he had won the election, his opponent and Congress leader Adi Srinivas filed a complaint with the Minister of Home Affairs (MHA) that Ramesh had visited Germany during the one year of continuous stay that was mandatory to obtain Indian citizenship.

The row over his citizenship has been pending since 2009 in the State High Court ever since. Srinivas also lodged complaint against Ramesh's citizenship with the Union Government, the Supreme Court, Union Home Ministry and other forums, where the matter was forwarded to be decided. The MHA had dismissed the citizenship claim of Ramesh atleast thrice in the last five years.

Ramesh's political entry

Chennameni Ramesh is the son of a veteran leader and MLA Chennameni Rajeshwara Rao. Being a Communist for decades, Rajeshwara Rao shifted his loyalties from CPI to join TDP in 1999. After serving as an MLA in 2009, he lobbied with TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and ensured Ch Ramesh got elected on a TDP ticket from the Vemulawada constituency in 2009. He then joined the TRS and was re-elected in a 2010 bypoll, and then to the Telangana Assembly in 2014 and 2018.

Will BJP be able to insulate Ramesh from his citizenship row?

The coming days would make it apparent if Ramesh would quit the TRS and join the BJP. In that scenario, would the BJP be able to 'rescue' Ramesh from his citizenship 'quicksand'? It would be a challenge as the MHA itself has rejected the citizenship of Ramesh several times.