Former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party national general secretary Daggubati Purandeshwari seems to have lost the confidence of the party national leadership for her lack of interest in the party activities in the recent past.
According to reports from New Delhi, the BJP top leadership has removed Purandeshwari from the post of party in-charge of Chhattisgarh on Friday. She has already been take off from the position of the BJP in-charge post in Odisha.
In her place, party president J P Nadda has appointed Om Prakash Mathur as the in-charge of the BJP in Chhattisgarh. Mathur is considered to be a trusted lieutenant of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah.
Though it is believed that Purandeshwari has been stripped of the positions in the two key states keeping in view the forthcoming assembly elections in these states and also as part of reshuffling of the party organisation in 15 states, sources say there is more to the development than what meets the eye.
It is learnt Purandeshwari has failed to live up to the expectations of the BJP leadership in strengthening the party in Andhra Pradesh, besides her lack of understanding of the ground situation in Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
The party was under the impression that since Purandeshwari happens to be the daughter of legendary actor and Telugu Desam Party founder N T Rama Rao, she would play a big role in attracting large number of TDP leaders into the BJP in Andhra.
She was supposed to head the party committee to oversee Operation Akarsh – attraction of the TDP leaders into the BJP. But she had not held the meeting of the committee even once, sources said.
On the contrary, the TDP has been gradually regaining strength in AP, while the BJP has failed to make any impact and continued to be in an inactive state.
At the same time, the party national leadership has reportedly received the information that Purandeshwari is getting closer to the TDP.
In the recent past, she had meetings with TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu a couple of times, though at family events – like hospitalisation of her husband Daggubati Venkateshwar Rao and death of her sister G Umamaheshwari.
And there are also reports that Naidu is trying bring the entire NTR and Nara families together so as to sustain the TDP and bring it back to power in AP, so that the NTR legacy would continue in the state.
Maybe, because of these reasons, the BJP leadership has decided to keep Purandeshwari off from the key responsibilities of the party.