Revolt brewing in BJP’s AP unit?

Marthi Subrahmanyam
Vijayawada

BJP State president Somu Veerraju’s decision to sack 11 district presidents has led to a commotion in the BJP as they warned of revolt against the move.

According to reliable sources, Somu Veerraju decided to remove 11 district presidents. However, State BJP affairs in-charge and Union Minister Muralidharan and Sanghatana Minister Madhukar did not agree with Veerraju’s proposal to remove the 11 district presidents.

But Veerraju is determined to replace the 11 district presidents at any cost which led to differences among the leaders. The 11 district presidents were elected through voting as per the party norms and now they questioned Veerraju on how he could remove the elected presidents and nominate some other leaders. A few days ago, BJP organised a zonal committee meeting in Ongole. Somu Veerraju and co-in-charge Sunil Deodhar enquired about how district presidents were working full-time and how many of them were ready to spend money to organise party programmes. The district presidents told them that they were spending their own money to organise the party programme and they would like to continue as district presidents.

Veerraju and Sunil Deodhar reportedly asked the BJP district presidents whether they would cooperate if they were removed from the posts. Furious over the BJP leaders’ proposal, the district presidents made it clear to them that they had spent lakhs of rupees to hold the party programmes and had striven hard to strengthen the party during the last three years.

They also questioned the duo on how they could remove them without discussing the matter in the core committee. The district presidents insisted Veerraju and Sunil Deodhar disclose whether the decision was taken by the national high command or taken by the duo.
“If we fail as district presidents, it means, Somu Veerraju also failed as State president,” a district president argued, according to the BJP sources.

Understanding the 11 district BJP presidents may revolt against them on the decision; Sunil Deodhar has offered posts in the State committee and offered to give tickets to contest to Assembly in the next elections. However, the district presidents warned of revolt against the State committee if they were removed.

A BJP leader said the BJP state leadership led by Veerraju proposed to remove the presidents of Machilipatnam, Guntur, Narasaraopet, Ongole, Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Rajampet, Srikakulam, Anakapalli, Narasapuram and Eluru. Interestingly, most of the district presidents were appointed when Kanna Lakshminarayana was the State president.

BJP sources added that Veerraju is firm on replacing the district presidents of East Godavari and Kakinada. Somu Veerraju is said to have been dissatisfied as his followers were not appointed as district presidents and now he wanted to nominate his close associates, sources added.

BJP sources said that State affairs in-charge Muralidharan has not approved the removal of 11 district presidents. National general secretary D Purandeswari, national secretary Satyakumar, MP CM Ramesh and former minister Sujana Chowdary, Kanna Lakshminarayana and also core committee members have not been apprised about the proposal of removing 11 district presidents.