BJP starts damage control exercise in Andhra Pradesh!

In a sudden development BJP Central leadership replaced AP State BJP President Kanna Lakshmi Narayana with Senior BJP leader Somu Verraju.

Somu Verraju is in BJP party since 42 years! BJP in Andhra Pradesh has invited serious criticism under it’s now ousted President Kanna Lakshmi Narayana. Kanna migrated to BJP party in 2018 just before the 2019 General elections. However he failed to get any success to the party. More so, BJP lost credibility within AP under his leadership. After numerous calls for action, BJP finally acted and replaced him with a senior leader who was serving the party for more than 4 decades.

With this action, BJP sent below political messages.

1. Anyone close to TDP party would not be entertained! Kanna earned the tag of TDP covert when he started to send TDP favorable spokespersons for TV debates and sidelined senior karyakarthas.
2. BJP wants Kapus to “own" BJP as “their" party. AP has 3 politically dominant castes — Reddy, Kamma, Kapu. Reddys own Congress party, now YCP. Kammas own TDP. Kapus wanted to own Chiranjeevi’s Prajarajyam party but it was a non-starter. Pawan Kalyan of Janasena always claimed he doesn’t want Kapu tag. Note that CBN never explicitly said about it that way for Kammas nor Jagan did like that for Reddys. So Kapus were always left to support either TDP, YCP or BJP. No non-kapu politician was ever elected from Kakinada constituency. For the first time, Krishnam Raju from Kshatriya community was elected with kapu support on BJP ticket. Kapus supported CBN in 2014 and that lead him to victory. Later they supported Jagan in 2019 which made him CM. Kapus constitute almost 28% of vote bank and so its critical to get their support. BJP is now eyeing back to get their support which they once had in 1998 by making Somu Verraju President who belongs to Kapu community.
3. Somu Verraju grew from grassroots level. He was instrumental in taking Pawan Kalyan to Modi in 2014 and making him support BJP. BJP wants to send a message to its karyakarthas that it is going to reward hardworking leaders who are loyal to BJP party.

So far, Somu Verraju appointment has rattled TDP leadership and its media channels in AP. That shows BJP has done something right in AP.

Will Somu Verraju give a new breath of life for BJP in AndhraPradesh? We have to wait and see!