Bharatiya Janata Party, which is making all out efforts to wrest power from Telangana Rashtra Samithi in 2023 assembly elections in Telangana, appears to have found a powerful leader in TRS leader Eatala Rajender, who was recently sacked from the state cabinet on the charges of land encroachments.
While the Congress leaders in Telangana is also desperately tyring to lure Rajender into their party, the BJP leaders, who were initially silent, is learnt to have started efforts to bring him into the saffron party.
According to reports in a section of media, BJP national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav along with Union minister of state for home G Kishan Reddy, landed in Hyderabad in a special flight on Monday to hold negotiations with Rajender.
It is learnt the BJP leaders had called Rajender to the farm house owned by former MP G Vivek at Moinabad and held secret talks till late in the evening and held confabulations with him.
Interestingly, Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who has been sending signals for his entry into the BJP, also attended the meeting.
A few other senior leaders including former MP A P Jitender Reddy and BJP national general secretary D K Aruna were also present at the meeting, sources said.
It is learnt the BJP leadership, during the meeting, made a bumper offer to Rajender, if he joined the BJP.
It is believed that the party promised to project him as the chief ministerial candidate in the next elections.
However, it is not exactly known how Rajender had responded to the offer. The BJP leadership has asked Kishan Reddy and others to keep the entire meeting a closely guarded secret.
Eatala has not been disclosing his plans of action to anybody. He even made it clear that if he resigned from the assembly membership, he would contest the by-election to Huzurabad assembly seat as an independent.
“He wants to prove his hold over the constituency independently without the help of any other political party. He might take a call on joining the BJP only after winning the Huzurabad seat again,” sources said.