Union Minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy, BJP National General Secretary and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, sitting MP Arvind Dharmapuri and senior leader Eatala Rajender were among the candidates from Telangana whose names figure in the first list of Lok Sabha candidates announced by the party on Saturday.
Kishan Reddy, who represents Secunderabad in the outgoing Lok Sabha, is a senior BJP leader who rose through the ranks in the party.Born in 1960, Kishan Reddy started his political career as an ordinary activist in the party and emerged as a key leader for BJP in Telangana.
He held important positions, including MLA (three times), president of BJP state unit and president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2019 and was the Union MoS (Home). He was later accorded Cabinet rank (tourism, culture and development of north east region).
Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is known for his strong Hindutva views, represents Karimnagar in the current Lok Sabha.A leader who belongs to the backward classes, Sanjay Kumar is credited with the party’s turnaround in Telangana when he was state president of BJP. The party achieved remarkable successes during his stewardship, including in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls in 2020 that left the then ruling BRS stunned.
However, he was replaced by Kishan Reddy as the state BJP president in 2023.Eatala Rajender, who has been fielded from Malkajgiri by the BJP, is a popular backward class leader in the state.Rajender, who had served as finance and health minister in the previous BRS government, had joined the BJP in 2021 after his removal from state cabinet over allegations of land grabbing.
He had quit as MLA and got re-elected in the subsequent by-election.However, Rajender lost in the 2023 Legislative Assembly polls from both constituencies that he contested in, Gajwel and Huzurabad.Arvind Dharmapuri, who has been fielded again from Nizamabad by the BJP, is known as a firebrand leader.
He had joined BJP ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls though his father D Srinivas was a senior Congress leader in the state.A surprise pick among candidates announced by BJP is B B Patil who quit BRS and joined the BJP only on Friday (March 1).
BB Patil represented Zaheerabad in the current Lok Sabha as a BRS candidate and he has been fielded from the same constituency. Some media reports claimed that BJP workers staged a protest, before his candidature was announced, against the Zaheerabad seat being given to Patil.
Another surprise choice is Madhavi Latha Kompella who will take on AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad.She is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and a Bharatanatyam dancer.
The other candidates whose names figure in the BJP’s first list released today include Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella), Bura Narsaiah Goud (Bhongir) and P Bharat (Nagarkurnool-SC).
