Marthi Subrahmanyam
Vijayawada
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) core committee, which discusses the latest political developments and evolves new political strategies, is itself divided due to rift in the party leadership in AP.
The core committee, comprising senior leaders and party affairs in-charge and co-in-charge, takes important decisions after thoroughly discussing them in the meeting and the decision of the core committee should be implemented by all in the party. The issue of the formation of the core committee has also led to differences among leaders in the state unit of the BJP.
After Somu Veerraju became the state president, the core committee meetings are held only when he decides and only some leaders picked by Veerraju are invited which has drawn flak from senior leaders and further fomented tussles.
Sanghatana Mantri, usually an RSS functionary, leads the core committee and he plays a significant role in the State BJP affairs. But AP Sanghatana Mantri Madhukar jee did not respond properly when six district presidents were sacked by State president Somu Veerraju recently. Union Minister and State BJP affairs in-charge Muralidharan is not taking care of AP affairs either.
Some BJP leaders complained to the Central leadership that Madhukar jee, Somu Veerraju, co-in-charge Sunil Deodhar and general secretary Vishnuvardhan Reddy have formed a group in the state BJP and are taking decisions on their own without taking the opinion of other leaders into consideration, it is learnt.
A BJP leader said that it had been decided to hold core committee meetings on one-to-one basis as the outcome of the earlier core committee meeting, held virtually, was leaked to the media.
A BJP senior leader said that national co-general-secretary Shiva Prakash expressed surprise over the decision to hold the core committee on one-to-one basis and he underlined the need for holding the core committee meeting physically to take decisions. He directed the State leaders to finalise a date to hold the core committee meeting and send the details to him.
Interestingly, after the Visakhapatnam core committee meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the core committee meeting has not been held so far. The Prime Minister asked the State leaders to release a ‘charge sheet’ against the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government’s corruption. But the core committee meeting has not been convened so far.
A senior leader said that the ‘charge sheet’ on the Jagan Reddy-led government’s corruption has not been released as some BJP leaders fear that it would affect the benefits, which they were getting from the government.
