BJP leaders target Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao over the arrest of BJP State president Bandi Sanjay Kumar

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan (second from right) and Bandi Sanjay Kumar (third from left) and other party functionaries at the BJP’s office in Hyderabad on January 7.

A posse of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have launched a blistering attack on the Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, accusing him of being “corrupt” and “living in fear”. Leading the attack was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who cautioned Chandrashekar Rao from taking the BJP lightly in Telangana. Censuring Chandrashekar Rao for his “undemocratic and dictatorial attitude” against political opponents, Shivraj Singh Chouhan vowed that the BJP would not rest till the Chandrashekar Rao government was kicked out.

Addressing a meeting of the party’s Telangana leadership and workers that was organised to welcome Bandi Sanjay Kumar, the BJP’s Telangana State president who was released on bail from jail on January 5, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said: “KCR [Chandrashekar Rao] should not think that he can gulp down the BJP like biryani. KCR made so many promises, including double bedroom houses, but when questioned, the government is arresting and threatening. We are not a party that can be scared by all this. We will fight the Telangana Rashtra Samithi [TRS] government of KCR.”

Continuing with his diatribe at the meeting which was held at the BJP’s State office at Nampally in Hyderabad, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said: “I have never seen a Chief Minister like him who is so scared. People have put him on the seat of power but now he is hitting back at them. How much more corruption will you do? Will you eat up the entire Telangana?” Expressing confidence that the BJP would wrest power in Telangana in the 2024 Assembly election, Shivraj Singh Chouhan added: “The people of Telangana made Chief Minister KCR a tiger with their votes. But this time we will defeat him. Is this the way to behave by arresting people? KCR is afraid of Bandi Sanjay.”

Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who was arrested by the State police on January 2 for violating COVID-19 restrictions and for other charges, has found support from the BJP central leadership and State-level leaders. Tarun Chugh, the BJP’s national general secretary, and K. Laxman, the party’s national OBC president, have said that the entire party and the national leadership was with Bandi Sanjay Kumar in this “just war” against the TRS government.

BJP national president J.P. Nadda participated in a candle-light protest against the arrest of Bandi Sanjay Kumar, while Union Ministers Gangapuram Kishan Reddy and Bhagwanth Khuba called on the Telangana BJP president in jail and welcomed him back when he enlarged on bail.