New Delhi, June 9 (Reporter) Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar started out as an RSS volunteer in his early years, and is widely credited for expanding the BJP’s footprint in Telangana. His aggressive stance was on display during the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections in December 2020, in which the BJP sprang a surprise and won 48 of 150 seats. Under his leadership, the party also won two crucial Assembly bypolls – in the Huzurabad and Dubbaka seats. Kumar had also contested the 2014, 2018, and 2023 Assembly elections, but lost. This year, he defeated Congress’s Velchala Rajender Rao by 2,25,209 votes from Karimnagar Lok Sabha Constituency. He had won from the seat also in 2019. Born on July 11, 1971 to B. Narsayya and B. Sakuntala, he completed his secondary schooling at Sri Saraswathi Shishumandir Unnata paathashaala, in Karimnagar, in 1986 an was also active in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a youth, joining the organization at the age of 12. During his student days, he was a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), and was appointed the organisation’s Karimnagar president. Rising through the ranks, he became the ABVP’s national secretary, and in 1996, he accompanied BJP patriarch L K Advani for several days during the latter’s Rath Yatra. He is the former state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Telangana from 11 March 2020 to 4 July 2023. On 4 July 2023, Kumar stepped down as Telangana party president. He was named as BJP National General Secretary in 2023. Bandi Sanjay has been known as a staunch critic of the previous BRS government and former Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao...////...