Realizing the fact that its vote share is below NOTA votes and it was only less then 1 per cent in 2019 elections, though BJP succeeded in reviving its alliance with TDP and bargaining for a good number of seats, it is finding leadership crisis in choosing suitable candidates.
As part of alliance with TDP and Jana Sena, BJP got six Lok Sabha seats and 10 Assembly seats. But except former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in Rajampst and state president and former union minister D Purandeswari in Rajampet, it fails to locate suitable candidates from its own cadre. As a result, it is depending mostly on candidates with `suspecious’ character.
After finalizing its candidates at a meeting in New Delhi on Saturday and getting assurance from the BJP top leadership, YSRCP MLA Vara Prasad Rao joined BJP on Sunday to contest as its candidate for Tirupati Lok Sabha. Likewise, Rohan from a strong TDP family, joined BJP to contest for Badvel Assembly.
Likewise, it is fielding former MP Kottapalli Geetha, who was arrested along with her husband in a `bank fraud’ case. BJP is now choosing to field her from Araku Lok Sabha constituency, though TDP and its alliance partners are weak and YCP has a strong presence.
Though party senior leaders like GVL Narasimha Rao and Somu Veerraju are also keen to contest in the polls, all surveys indicated that they do not have any grass-root base and it is very difficult for them to give any fight in direct elections.
Former union minister Sujana Choudhary and BJP national secretary Sathya Kumar, who were never contested in any direct election, shelving their aspirations to contest for Lok Sabha, are now said to be settling themselves in Assembly seats.
TDP and Jana Sena circles are worrying that sparing some seats to BJP leaders, who do not have any gross-root presence will cost them heavily making those seats vulnerable to ruling YSRCP.
