Bandi Sanjay Kumar was born on 11 July 1971 to B. Narsayya and B. Sakuntala.[4] He completed his secondary schooling at Sri Saraswathi Shishumandir Unnata paathashaala, in Karimnagar, in 1986. He was also active in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as a youth, joining the organization at the age of twelve.[5]
Political career
Kumar was involved with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad,[6] eventually became town president and a state executive member of the organization. He also occupied leadership positions in this organization, becoming "town secretary, town president, national secretary of Kerala and incharge of Tamil Nadu."[5] In 1996, during BJP leader LK Advani's Surat Rath Yatra, he campaigned across India for 35 days.[7]
Kumar was elected a municipal corporator for Karimnagar's 48th division in 2005, and served in this role until his resignation in 2019, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha.[8] He was also fielded by the BJP in 2014 and 2018 as its candidate for the state assembly elections; he contested the Karimnagar seat both times. He was, however, unsuccessful in both elections, and lost to the Bharat Rashtra Samiti's Gangula Kamalakar.[9]
In the 2019 Indian general election, Kumar was fielded by the BJP from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency. He contested against the incumbent Member of Parliament, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti's B. Vinod Kumar, and the Indian National Congress' Ponnam Prabhakar.[9][10] He was elected by a margin of 89,508 votes.[11] His election was considered something of a surprise due to the BJP's prior lack of significant strength in Telangana,[12] as well as the fact that both his major opponents were politically well-established.[9] With his election to the Lok Sabha, Bandi became one of four Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from Telangana, a historic first for the party.[13][9]
On 4 July 2023, Kumar stepped down as Telangana party president, and on 21 July he was replaced by G. Kishan Reddy.[14]
On July 30, 2023 Kumar was announced as National General Secretary for BJP,[15] and on 4 August 2023 he took up the post.[16]
In April 2023, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and three others were arrested on charges of being involved in the question paper leak case of Telangana State Board's class ten examinations.[18][19]
On the day of his arrest, the police shared a few of the WhatsApp chats shared between accused 1 (Kumar) and accused 2 (Prashant), in the case.[19] The Warangal Police Commissioner said : "Bandi Sanjay's phone is missing but we will retrieve WhatsApp messages and conversations very soon. They have deleted a few messages, call logs/call data, we will retrieve all those details."[19]
On 7 April, Kumar was released on bail. In a statement on his release, he accused the police of incompetence, and demanded a judicial probe into the paper leak.[20]
BJP national president J. P. Nadda and national general secretary Tarun Chugh said that Kumar's arrest was part of a conspiracy to defame the BJP for the SSC paper leak.[21]
Family
In January 2023 Kumar's son Bandi Bhageerath had multiple charges registered against him for beating up a fellow student in his college.[22][23] In March 2023, the Telangana High Court issued a stay of Bandi Bhageerath's suspension from college, and the student whom he had attacked said that he had forgiven Kumar's son over the incident.[24]
