Telangana Left Out of BJP National Office-Bearers Team for First Time

HYDERABAD — Telangana was left without representation in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s new national office-bearers’ team, becoming the only southern state to draw a blank in the list announced by party president Nitin Nabin on Monday.

This marks the first time since the formation of Telangana that no leader from the state has found a place among the BJP’s national office-bearers. The complete absence of leaders from the state has come as a surprise within the state BJP unit, particularly as the central leadership has viewed Telangana as a key political turf and growth centre in south India.

In contrast to Telangana, all other southern states secured representation in the newly announced organizational team. Andhra Pradesh is represented by Daggubati Purandeswari and Vishnu Vardhan Reddy. In addition, Ram Madhav, who is originally from Andhra Pradesh, has also been included in the national team under the Delhi quota.

Other southern states also saw their leaders appointed to key party positions. From Karnataka, Prof M Nagaraja has been included in the team as a national vice-president. Tamil Nadu gained representation with the appointment of Dr M Venkateshan as a national secretary, while Kerala saw two appointments, with K Surendran and Anil Antony named as national secretaries.

In previous organizational setups, several leaders from Telangana held prominent roles in the party's central machinery. DK Aruna previously served as a national vice-president, while Bandi Sanjay Kumar was appointed as a national general secretary after completing his term as the Telangana BJP president.

The new national appointments leave Telangana as the sole southern state without a representative in the BJP's central office-bearers' panel.