In their fresh attack against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy on Saturday, October 15, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has put up film-style posters across Chandur town in the Munugode Assembly constituency. Munugode will be going for polls on November 3. The posters read “18,000 crores,” and sported a tagline “presented by Shah productions,” an obvious reference to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Along with this, some posters undersigned as the people of Huzurabad and people of Dubbaka read as “We were cheated. Don’t get cheated.” BJP had won both Huzurabad and Dubbaka constituencies during the bye-poll. The TRS, which recently announced a new name Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), has been attacking Rajagopal Reddy for joining the BJP and resigning the post of MLA, allegedly in lieu of a mining contract worth Rs 18,000 crore. The allegation of former MLA Rajagopal Reddy being given a Rs 18,000 crore contract has become the main electoral pitch of the TRS and the Congress.
In an interview to a news channel, Rajagopal Reddy disclosed that his mining company Sushee Infra & Mining Limited (SIML) received a massive tender from the Union government six months ago, which the TRS alleges was done in exchange for Rajagopal joining the BJP.
నేడే చూడండి ,మీ అభిమాన మునుగోడు థియేటర్లో 18000 కోట్లు pic.twitter.com/pLkntRWrN8
— Tirumandas Naresh Goud (@GoudNareshBrs) October 15, 2022
On Tuesday, when TRS working president KT Rama Rao made the allegation, the BJP candidate threatened to file a defamation case against him, if he did not prove the allegation within a day.
KTR alleges that Rajagopal Reddy has promised to the BJP leadership that he will spend Rs 500 crore in the bypoll. The TRS and Congress have been attacking Rajagopal Reddy for imposing a bypoll on Munugode allegedly for the sake of the contract.
Ever since the TRS made the allegation of Rs 18,000 crore contract against Rajagopal Reddy, attacks against the BJP leader have intensified with regular posters against him, mentioning the contract. Recently, a poster resembling a money transaction on digital payment mobile application Phone Pe with Rajagopal Reddy’s face on it, was struck across Munugode. The posters had a picture of Rajagopal’s face, with text that said “Rs 18,000 crore has been transferred to contractor Komatireddy”. The poster mentioned the transaction ID as 'BJP18thousandcrores'.
Meanwhile, former MP Boora Narsiah Goud resigned from the TRS on Saturday because he was denied the TRS ticket to contest in the polls. The former MP was anticipating that the TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) would pick him for the contest. However, KCR chose to field Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy.