top southern political focus this evening. Gearing up for the 2024 polls, the Bar a Janata Party, brought in new leadership in the states of Plea and the Pradesh, of course in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana as well. However, in its electorally most important southern state of Karnataka, it is yet to decide on who will lead the party in the Legislative Assembly and on appointment of a new state president. This has left the Karnataka assembly without a leader of opposition. Chief Minister Sidra gets set to present his historic 14th budget on Friday in Telangana. The BJP has appointed Union Minister G Kishan Reddi as the state party chief and has balanced power and cast equations by appointing party Emily Eah Rajinder, as the chairman of the Election Management Committee, remember telling heading to the polls later this year, former Union Minister Deep will lead the party in and Pradesh. So what do we of all these changes that the B JP has made? And what are the further changes that we are expecting from the party joining us this evening? NDT V's vasuda goal from New Delhi and Umar Sud from Hyderabad I'm also joined by Professor Sandeep Shastri from Bengaluru, one of the most respected voices on Karnataka and national politics. But my first question to you, um, let's talk about telling first before we move into Karnataka. What is going to be the balancing act that the BJP needs to do in telling Ghana? And there's also talk of some kind of accommodation for the outgoing president. Take us through what you are hearing. We are just six months into elections. The BJP certainly would not have wanted to make this kind of a leadership, considering the fact that the prime minister himself has personally praised Bandi San for his organisational skills for having put that kind of fire into the, you know, into the BJP battle here in Tegan. So much so that the perception battle has shifted to make BJP, also one of the players here in Tegan. But after what happened, the debacle in Karnataka, in a sense that the BJP seem to be going downhill because there were a lot of voices of distance, something that you don't usually see in a party like the BJP, so many of them speaking publicly about why they are unhappy with the party leadership and what their own ambitions are. And that's the reason why perhaps Kishen Reddi was chosen as somebody who has been twice president, state unit president. He has been an Emily. He has been an MP, has been a minister at the centre as well, and therefore understands the dynamics of what happens there and what happens in the state as well. And he is already remember a politically very kind of a dominant community, which is politically influential rather than dominant. I should say community that the B JP has now invested in, and they have also tried to balance the kind of power equations with, you know, agenda, who was kind of pitching to be projected as the chief ministerial candidate or as even the state president. He could not have perhaps wanted that, or he could not have been given that, considering that he is a very new entrant in the party. But he's been had to satisfy with being the chairperson of the Election Committee for Telangana State itself. So what the BJP is looking at is immediately, of course, there will be this, you know, Prime Minister will be coming over the weekend to Warangal and the big numbers that the BJP hopefully will be able to put together with Kishan Red at the helm of affairs now and also into because they have been able to put good shows in the past. But how they are going to attract leadership. That is one of the things that it rain. There we are told the central leadership that Sadi Sane is so junior that people from other parties will not be coming into the unit of the BJP. They lost, formulate and Julie, despite having meetings, they went to the Congress. But of course that happened because of other district factors local, local political factors for those leaders. But it managed to it. Agenda managed to have seems to have managed to have convinced the leadership that it is leadership that is not allowing talent to flow in. And considering B JP has not otherwise been very strong here, they would hope that things will start looking up for them from now onwards. Of course, we must remember that 2018 they had a you know, a low vote share in the assembly elections, but jumped up to 19% from 7% less than 7% to 19%. It looks by elections back to you. OK, well, yes, that's focus on telling Ghana as we head into the polls. But the larger focus immediate focus, perhaps, is about trying to settle the Karnataka leader of opposition as well as president issue before I get to Vasuda goal. Sandeep Shastri Is it the fear of walking past the era and making a of change? That's perhaps holding the BJP back and making it very difficult to take a decision as far as Karnataka is concerned, What do you think is the key sticking point for the BJP in the state, which is going without a leader of opposition? Till today, as it heads as we head into, as we've been seeing a budget session of the Assembly unfold in the state, there are four sticking points and still the glue does not hold together. Sticking point number one that you mentioned. The B JP is not able to deal with past history. The fact of larger than life presence that is factor number one. I think they are also not able to get their caste arithmetic right. Uh, do we make the leader of the opposition? And therefore, do we make the state party president from the OB CS? So this calculation also is holding them up in terms of a decision. Uh, not only is it history and math, it is also balancing geography. Uh, how do you balance the different regions of Karnataka? You lost support in northern Karnataka. How do you win back? The support of Northern Karnataka is a crucial question for them. And I think finally it is the chemistry of trust. Now, who do you trust? Do you break away from the past government? Do you want to write on a clean slate? However clean that slate may be Now I think these are the contradictions. And I think the B JP has still not recovered from the defeat it suffered in the assembly elections. It is still in that stupid if you may of a defeat. And I think unless they recover early from that and the leader of the opposition and state unit president appointment is critical in that unless they do both these things, I'm not too sure whether they will be on track for their preparation for next year's losa by elections. It's one thing to say that the prime Minister is our chief campaign manager. But I think time and again it has been found that unless the ground is ready, the prime minister's influence can only be the top pressing and not the foundation. So I think the B JP needs to shrug itself out of that stupid. Otherwise, you will have a budget being presented with the deficit being with the B JP and not about the government important point that you make there. Vasuda. Venu. Gopal, What are you hearing in New Delhi? Are they close to making a decision or and are we also expecting other state changes that are being made across the country? What are you hearing in New Delhi at the moment? So we are the changes that have been made yesterday. You know, the replacement of, uh, B GP presidents in Telangana, Jharkand, Punjab, and and were a result of almost, uh, almost a month long meetings at the B GP leadership, Did you know And there are a couple of factors that the B GP has been very mindful about. One is of course, cast. And of course, you know, showing nationally recognised faces at least in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. So that, uh, people are also convinced that the party is very serious about these two states. Uh, and of course, getting a tribal leader back into, uh, you know, the hand position babula and a Hindu ja in Punjab. So cast has been an important factor here at this the same time, they've also gone for somebody who can keep the flock together. In the case of Telangana, what we hear is 2024 is also very important for them, apart from the assembly elections and Khan, Daddy perhaps was the only choice because he's a guy, right, Because but was also from the Santan guy. If you replace him with any of the defectors, the the song gets very, um, upset with that. Right? So that was one reason. And, uh uh, Now this, of course, is going to defect in a lot of other organisational changes is what we hear and then terminating in the cabinet expansion, which is possible in the next few days. Uh, is what we learn. Of course, this is the run up to the election. So politics is very important. Outreach to allies is very important. Uh, and we hear that changes could be made in Kerala. I'm sorry to interrupt you, vasuda, but what are you hearing? As far as Karnataka is concerned, when do you expect the decision on Karnataka to be made both as LOP and State President? So, as far as I know, both Manu Kamanda and we know who were sent as central observers to Karnataka are back now, they've had 1 to 1 meetings. So what I learned from, um, some of these people is that decision could be made soon, right? She was also saying that the party is also trying to make sense of its defeat. And this happened in, uh, you know, when the prime minister was speaking in a rally and he spoke about guarantees and he was attacking the caucus model, Um, so in in some ways, they're going to take some time, balance the cast out, and there are many discussions happening here. I met a state leader from Katica yesterday, but clearly, uh, you know, everyone is anticipating it. Nobody knows what is going to happen. There have been many, many meetings, but, uh the balancing factor, The consensus candidate is yet to be finalised. Right? Remember, Karnataka has been the prime electoral spot for the B JP. As far as South India is concerned, Karnataka and talent have contributed to all the seats that the party won in 2019. So two very important states there in focus this evening. Thanks so much. Um, goal as well as Professor Sandeep Shari. We'll keep a close track and find out when that decision on Karnataka will be announced. That's all we have time for on the show. Thanks for watching.
