Hyderabad, Jul 10 (IANS): BJP national president J. P. Nadda has warned the party’s Telangana leaders against indiscipline.
At a meeting with party leaders on Sunday night, he asked them to work together to ensure the party's victory in the coming Assembly elections.
According to sources, Nadda expressed his displeasure over statements made by some leaders in recent days saying these statements damaged the party.
After the meeting with presidents and organising secretaries of the party from 11 states on Sunday, Nadda met Telangana leaders at a hotel in the city. During separate meetings with them, he exhorted them to be cautious while speaking in public.
The BJP chief warned that action will be taken against those crossing the party line. He noted that some of the statements made by a few leaders and media leaks embarrassed the party.
Nadda told the leaders that they should act with discipline while working together for the Assembly elections scheduled later this year. He advised them to refrain from targeting each other.
The BJP chief made it clear that all the leaders should keep everything aside and work together to achieve the goal of bringing the party to power.
Those who met Nadda include new state BJP chief and union minister G. Kishan Reddy, MLA and chairman of party’s election management committee Eatala Rajender, BJP national vice president D. K. Aruna, party MP D. Arvind, former MPs G. Vivek, Vijayashanthi and Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy.
The state unit of BJP has been witnessing infighting for the last couple of months. The dissidence finally led to the ouster of Bandi Sanjay Kumar as the state president last week.
Sanjay’s supporters within the party are said to be unhappy over his removal. A section of leaders, who are unhappy with the party leadership for not recognizing them, are said to be planning to switch loyalties to the Congress party.
A leak of the conversation BJP MLA Raghunandan Rao had recently with a group of media persons in Delhi has also embarrassed the saffron party. Rao launched a scathing attack on Bandi Sanjay and demanded an inquiry into the source of his income. The MLA also claimed that the party spent Rs.100 crore in the by-election for Munugode Assembly seat.
Raghunandan Rao’s allegations have provided ammunition to the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to attack BJP. BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao asked why the Central agencies were not probing the claim of the BJP MLA that the BJP spent Rs.100 crore in one Assembly by-election.