HYDERABAD: An aggressive BJP on Thursday tore into the false allegations of the TRS that it had tried to engineer defection of four ruling party MLAs by offering them huge bribes, with state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar leading a multi-pronged attack against the pink party.
Within hours of Sanjay openly declaring the BJP intentions that this was not something the saffron party would take lying down, the party filed a plea in the Telangana state High Court seeking a probe into the matter. The BJP also complained to the Election Commission of India against the ‘farce’ enacted by the TRS, seeking an independent probe, even as simultaneous demands were made for inquiries by a sitting Supreme Court judge, as well as by the CBI.
In the process, Sanjay and other BJP leaders made it clear that they, or their party, had nothing to do with the episode, while conveying a message to the Munugode voters, and rest of the state, that the BJP was clean and it was instead the TRS whose hands were dirty.
Sanjay started the day by asking TRS uncomfortable questions, including why the police was silent on the cash it claimed it had seized from the farmhouse of TRS MLA Panjagula Rohit Reddy’s — otherwise known as ‘Pilot’ Rohith Reddy — in Moinabad.
Addressing a press conference in Munugode, Sanjay warned that the BJP would have something to do with the Cyberabad police commissioner, who, he said, had needlessly blamed the BJP.
“This entire episode was scripted by KCR. It is pure drama,” Sanjay said, adding, “it has been more than 12 hours since the episode. Maybe the next part of the script is not yet ready but is being worked upon inside Pragathi Bhavan.”
He said all of this was for one byelection. “The farmhouse where it happened was of the TRS, they are the ones who moved the money, they are the one who complained to police, and they claim they are the victims.”
Those involved have business connections to the Chandrashekar Rao family and belong to the TRS, Sanjay said. He also said that the Cyberabad police chief was a “key player in the drama,” which is why he selected Moinabad, which falls under his jurisdiction for enacting it, but he “will not be able to escape the fallout.”
Sanjay demanded that the CCTV footage of Deccan Kitchen Centre, Pragathi Bhavan, and the farmhouse be made public as also the call data records of the CM, Pragathi Bhavan, the Cyberabad police commissioner, four MLAs and others named as involved in the case.
“This must be done for the truth to come out. Will the TRS government do this?” he said.
Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, who addressed a press meet in Munugode, said “the episode was a comedy scene in the middle of a serious movie. We all laughed. The worst part was the four TRS MLAs… they are second-hand goods. They are not worth anything. None of them will win if they contest elections again.”
Arvind also said that anywhere in the country, the BJP would never allow entry to anyone unless the MLA or other elected leader first resigned from their posts and contested the election, unlike the TRS which was an expert at engineering defections.
In Hyderabad, Kishan Reddy declared that BJP had nothing to do with the episode and said if the TRS was sincere to get to the bottom of the issue it should seek a probe by a sitting Supreme Court judge and also demand a CBI probe.
“How did the TRS social media handles get information before the police? In any case, there is nothing the BJP would gain from admitting these four MLAs into its fold. We will win in Munugode. We have three MLAs currently, after Rajgopal Reddy joins the group, they will be enough to pull the ground beneath the TRS government, he said.
“This movie scripted by KCR will end as a flop on November 6 (date of the Munugode bypoll result). If any probe must be done, it must start with KCR, who began the luring of MLAs from other parties into the TRS without even asking them to resign from their seats,” Kishan Reddy said.
“Such episodes will not deter us from our mission to put an end to the Kalvakuntla family rule in Telangana,” he added.
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