BJP Telangana in Turmoil as Arvind Bucks Party Line on Surya’s Bifurcation Remarks
Hyderabad: The infighting in the state BJP refuses to end, with Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind openly supporting Bangalore South MP Tejaswi Surya’s controversial comments on the bifurcation of the state, comparing it to the division of the other party.
The state BJP leadership, including Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, not only distanced itself from the comments on the bifurcation but also announced as part of damage control that Surya truly regretted his comments and apologized.
Arvind defended Surya’s comments in a press conference on Saturday, much to their embarrassment.
Arvind asked, “What is wrong with what you say?” he asked, insisting that the truth lies in the Congress’ delay in granting statehood, which fueled youth deaths during the separate Telangana agitation. His unapologetic stance contrasted sharply with senior leaders and exposed deepening fissures in the Telangana BJP ranks.
The main controversy arose from Surya’s speech labeling the Congress-led UPA’s division of the state as “unscientific” and comparing it with the “peaceful” formation of Uttarakhand and Jharkhand under the Vajpayee government. The remarks were aimed at Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s “hybrid model” for delimitation; Surya rejected it, calling it a “silly argument” that violated “one man, one vote, one value”.
The statement sparked immediate protests in Parliament, with Opposition leaders claiming that it insulted the Telangana statehood movement and the constitutional spirit.
In response to the backlash, senior party leaders tried to downplay the issue and offered to apologize if feelings were hurt. However, given the BJP’s regular program of Prashikshan Shivir and Abhyas Varga, which trains leaders and workers on ideology and unified messages for disciplined public stances, contradictory statements continued and fueled the turmoil that took observers by surprise.
As Hyderabad protests grow, Union coal minister G. Kishan Reddy has shifted gears. He first defended Surya, saying the MP did not intend to insult Telangana but to criticize the Congress’s “fraudulent” and “violent” handling of the state partition, which claimed 1,200 lives. A day later, Reddy said the remarks were an “inadvertent” mistake and wrong.
Union MSME minister Shobha Karandlaje, who has been leading protests against the Congress over the women’s bill, adopted a conciliatory tone to limit the damage at the state level during her visit to the state. He apologized on behalf of the party if the sentiments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh were hurt and stated that Surya’s remarks came out “in the flow of conversation” and not out of ill-will towards the statehood struggle.
State BJP president N. Ramchander Rao countered the opposition’s rhetoric, accusing BRS and Congress of twisting words to make gains. He claimed that unlike the Vajpayee era achievements, the BJP supported the formation of Telangana against the “flawed” bifurcation of the Congress in 2014.
