Telangana BJP in crisis, Vishweshwar Reddy says 'we need changes'

Hyderabad: The Telangana BJP’s woes appear to be getting compounded with each passing day. Just as it emerged from a crisis of sorts over reports of rifts among the state party’s top leaders including state party president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, senior leaders Etala Rajendar and the likes of Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, the party on Friday saw senior leader and former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy saying that the going was slowly getting tough.

Vishweshwar Reddy said that the state party leaders were feeling a sense of urgency for some changes in the party, and that discussions centred on this were occurring at the BJP state headquarters. “Everyone agrees that the current plans and speed are not enough. The polls are in five months and some changes are needed. They will come,” he told a television channel in New Delhi.

The former MP, however, declared that the BJP was serious about “defeating KCR. ”

“We have to focus on change and remove doubts in the public mind. There are several reasons for this. One among them is there was a lot of expectation that Kavitha (BRS MLC K Kavitha) will get arrested in the Delhi liquor scam. But the thing is that is ED which is pursuing the case and we are a political party, it is not in our hands. If she gets arrested, faith in us will increase,” the former MP said.

Vishweshwar Reddy said that the Congress was planting seeds of doubts among the people that the BJP and the BRS were fighting in the state but had an understanding in Delhi. People are beginning to believe this, he said.

“The anti-incumbency factor that was with us is eroding slowly but the BJP is not getting weak. We are being blamed unnecessarily.” Vishweshwar Reddy, however, added that some statements in the past by some BJP leaders that Kavitha will be arrested within a month have not helped the matters any.

“This is a peculiar situation we are in.We are doing a lot of internal work, not much external work,” he said.

On some party leaders saying that Rajendar was not working hard, Vishweshwar Reddy said, “He is working as hard as he normally does. I am also in the joinings committee. Definitely the work has slowed down. Among the reasons for leaders like Ponguleti (Srinivas Reddy), and Jupally (Krishan Rao) not joining, as are the other holdouts. They are asking whether we are serious and we are not able to give convincing replies.”