AFTER WEEKS of speculation surrounding several high-profile names, the BJP picked old RSS hand Paka Venkata Satyanarayana as its candidate for the coming Rajya Sabha bypoll in Andhra Pradesh. BJP sources said they chose Satyanarayana as he is a “loyal party worker who had grown along the ranks of the BJP”. With Satyanarayana being from the OBC Goud community, the BJP hopes it can also send a signal to the backward classes. “He is from the RSS and is well versed with the ideology of the party. Besides, he was also part of BJP’s manifesto committees before crucial elections in the past two decades,” a BJP leader told The Indian Express. Former Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai and former Union Minister Smriti Irani were among the names floating around for the Rajya Sabha seat vacated by YSR Congress Party leader V Vijayasai Reddy. The Rajya Sabha bypoll in Andhra Pradesh is scheduled for May 9. With no other candidate expected to file a nomination, his road to the Upper House seems clear. Another BJP leader echoed this, saying that Satyanarayana is a “deserving candidate who had risen up the ranks from being a foot soldier to holding key posts of the party”. He can be a “measured voice in the Rajya Sabha”, the leader said. Satyanarayana joined the RSS in 1976 as a 15-year-old. He was actively involved in student politics and was a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the RSS's student wing, at DNR College in Andhra Pradesh. He officially joined the BJP in 1980, and slowly went up its ranks. He became the BJP town general secretary, then a district secretary, and the Bhimavaram counsellor. Later, he served as the BJP Assembly Convener from Bhimavaram. He contested the 1996 Lok Sabha elections from Narasapur but stood fourth, securing less than 1% of the votes. He threw his hat in the ring again for the MLC elections in 2006 but was unsuccessful. However, his long and committed association with the party paid off, resulting in several organisational posts over the years. Satyanarayana went on to become the BJP’s state executive member in 1994 and served as the Bhimavaram district president between 2006 to 2010. He was elevated to the state vice-president post in 2018. He currently holds the charge of the party’s state disciplinary committee. The BJP leader was also the party’s spokesperson for undivided Andhra Pradesh from 2012-18. Satyanarayana was part of the BJP election manifesto drafting committee for the 2009 and 2014 polls in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He continued to be a part of the committee in 2019 following the state’s bifurcation in 2014.
