At a time the leadership is struggling hard to choose its next state president for Andhra Pradesh, pressure is mounting on the need to project a dalit face for the party to expand its base into new sections.
Already couple of leaders are lobbying heavily to head the state party, they include present state president and Rajahmundry MP Daggubati Purandeshwari, former union minister and Vijayawada MLA Sujana Choudhary, former MLC PVN Madhav and Adoni MLA Dr Parthasarathy, it is believed that none of them have potentials to expand the social base of the party.
Earlier, BJP resorted to an experiment by fielding Kapu leaders to head the party by giving chance to former minister Kanna Lakshmi Narayana and Somu Veerraju, for nearly seven years. But both of them proved to be disastrous, facing severe allegations of irregularities and corruption charges.
Till now, the party failed to conclude accounts related to financial transactions during their period. Moreover, they failed to bring any new leadership into the party. The party lost its ground in the state and left as a party having a vote share of less than NOTA. Present president Purandeswari, who is more eager to join the union cabinet also failed to make the party closer to people.
Only due to alliance with TDP and Jana Sena it was able to win eight MLA and 3 Lok Sabha seats. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has reportedly commented that they lost 3 Lok Sabha seats only due to BJP’s weak presence. Moreover, most of the candidates elected in these seats hardly have any ideological affinity with the party.
Dalits, who have been politically matured and consolidated as political force in the state are now distancing themselves to the YSRCP, due to its Christian identity and unable to associate with the TDP and Jana Sena, due to social tensions at ground level. The Congress in the state is not in a position to consolidate itself.
In such circumstances, bringing a dalit face as the state party chief, many felt will enable the BJP to introduce into dalit colonies, so that to emerge as a major political force in the state. In fact, it was considered earlier, but somehow unable to take a firm decision by the party high-command.
More particularly in the background of Amit Shah’s comments on Dr Ambedkar creating outrage among dalits and selecting a leader, who was accused in dalit massacre as its Kurnool district president, it is urgent for the party to make strategic moves to win over dalit communities.
Already RSS has been concentrating on dalit colonies for the last two decades through its Samajika Samarasta and other forums, through various activities. So, it is not difficult for the BJP to pick up a potential dalit face, who can bring a far reaching political change in the social base of the party in the AP.
