Rajahmundry: BJP senior leader and anchor man in the state Somu Veerraju is in the race to become the party state president in the elections scheduled to be held in January.
Hailing from a farming family at Katheru village near Rajahmundry in East Godavari, he has been associated with the party since 1977. He held a series of senior positions in the party and headed the BJYM and served as secretary, general secretary and vice-president of BJP state unit in the united AP. He has been associated with RSS for long.
Though he used to keep a low profile earlier, he catapulted to fame when he became anchorman to the party in the state during the conduct of elections held in 2014. Serving as the state election panel head, he was instrumental in fac-ilitating the talk between film actor Pawan Kalyan and then Gujarat Chief Minister and party's campaign committee chairman Narendra Modi. He also held negotiations with several leaders to join the party from various professional backgrounds and also from other political parties.
At present, he is the vociferous voice to the BJP in the state as he has been defending the party for providing financial help to the state and even crossing swords with the TD for failing to disclose the party's financial allocation to the state. Senior party leaders say that at present, the BJP is having two groups in the state with one pro-TD regime while the other anti-TD regime.
Somu Veerraju who is the only member in the party's national executive committee from the state maintains that they need to inform the people in the state about the kind of help their government is providing and turns critical over mis-information campaign that the Centre is ignoring the interests of the people by not according either special status or announcing special package.
BJP’s city president Ksh-atriya Bala Subramanyam Singh said, “He is the senior most leader in the party in the state at present.”
