​With Aggressive Hindutva Push, Fierce Oratory Style, Bandi Sanjay Kumar Shoulders BJP's Telangana Dreams

With national leaders like Amit Shah and JP Nadda visiting the state in quick succession, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is giving out a clear message that Telangana is important for them.

After Karnataka, the saffron party seeks to continue its southern conquest with Telangana, and all its dreams are riding on state party chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar’s shoulders. The 51-year-old MP from Karimnagar just concluded his 25-day Praja Sangrama Yatra 3 at Hanmakonda.

Known for his aggressive style and unapologetic delivery of the BJP’s Hindutva agenda, he was made the Telangana state chief at a time when the BJP saw an unexpected rise in vote share in 2019.

Talking to News18, political analyst Gali Nagaraja said: “Sanjay became the Telangana BJP chief after the 2019 elections. In that election, the BJP sprang a big surprise by getting four parliament seats and 20% vote share. It was a dramatic rise as in the state election in 2018, they had just one seat and a little over 7% vote share."

With such a turn of events, the BJP started looking for a new face. There was a general perception that the leaders were helming the BJP at that time — Dr K Laxman and Kishan Reddy before him — were close to the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Sanjay, meanwhile, was a young leader who came from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background. “Sanjay, who was under 50, was relatively young and a core RSS member. He rose from his position of a municipal councillor. With his RSS background, he could aggressively push the Hindutva agenda and spread the BJP’s message through some gruelling padayatras. The party leadership is hopeful of flourishing with divisive politics in Telangana," added the analyst.

STRENGTHS

Sanjay does not hail from a political family, but joined the RSS at the age of 12. He was an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). While pursuing an MA in public administration from Madurai Kamaraj University, he occupied various ranks in the students’ organisation.

Talking about his colleague’s core strength, former MLA from Uppal, Dr NVSS Prabhakar told News18: “Sanjay is a self-made political leader and occupied various posts in the party. He also took part in the struggle for a separate Telangana state. He served as a municipal corporator from Karimnagar from 2005 to 2019 and became a force to reckon with due to his active involvement in festivals such as Hanuman Jayanti and Ganesh Chaturthi. With his organisational prowess and passion for Hindu causes, he has been able to influence the masses. He has also taken up long padayatras that have brought him close to people all over the state."

Sanjay is known to be close to Amit Shah and rose up the ranks by organising meetings, taking part in agitations and writing articles. His party members believe that he is able to fight KCR tooth and nail through his confrontational oratory style.

Palwai Raghavendra Reddy, a political commentator, said: “The day Bandi Sanjay was made the chief of the state unit, the BJP explicitly demonstrated its intention to take the fight against TRS/KCR to the streets. While the previous party state unit chiefs were soft when it comes to sensitive topics, Bandi Sanjay leads from the front. Among those in the party, he is the best bet the BJP had to spread its narrative or showcase its religious aggression."

CHALLENGES

Bandi Sanjay Kumar is close to the top brass of the party in Delhi, but the same might not be said about his equation with leaders from the state.

“Sanjay is not as tall a leader as Ch Vidyasagar Rao (former governor of Maharashtra) or Bandaru Dattatreya (governor of Haryana), who are traditional BJP loyalists. His projection as the CM candidate from the BJP at a public gathering has not gone down well among seniors. Recently, dissidents from the party held a meeting at Karimnagar to express dissatisfaction with Sanjay. It’s the party chief’s job now to control the dissident voices," said Gali Nagaraja. There is also a power tussle between him and Etela Rajender, an influential leader who joined the BJP last year.

A caste angle, too, threatens to upset political equations for the BJP. Vidyasagar Rao and Telangana’s CM belong to the same community — Velama. The small community is politically ambitious and it does not have loyalty to any one party. It is believed that Vidyasagar is close to KCR and this does not bode well for BJP.

Will Bandi Sanjay Kumar be able to overcome these challenges and turn fortunes for BJP in the 2023 general elections? One needs to wait and watch.

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