Political drama intensified in Telangana ahead of the Munugode bye-poll, after the Cyberabad police raided a farm house in Aziz Nagar, Hyderabad on Wednesday, October 26, and caught three persons allegedly associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Police say they were caught red-handed while they were trying to buy four MLAs from the ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). Police said that the four MLAs were offered Rs 100 crore each, apart from contracts running into crores, in exchange for switching their loyalties.
Police said that they conducted the raids following a tip-off by the legislators. TRS MLAs Rega Kantha Rao, Guvvala Balaraju, Beeram Harshvardhan Reddy and Pilot Rohit Reddy reportedly alerted the police that attempts were being made to lure them to switch loyalties.
The detained persons have been identified as Ramachandra Bharati alias S Satish Sharma from Delhi and Simhayajulu from Tirupati, who are both said to be temple priests, and Nanda Kumar, a businessman from Hyderabad said to be close to Union Minister G Kishan Reddy.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra who was part of the raid said that they seized Rs 15 crore during the exercise. He further added that the deal could be to the tune of Rs 100 crore. According to the Commissioner, the MLAs alleged that some BJP leaders were trying to lure them to defect from the TRS by offering prominent posts, contracts and huge amounts of cash.
The TRS has alleged that those detained by the police are close to BJP leaders. TRS leader Krishank Manne shared photographs of the accused with Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, G. Kishan Reddy and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on his Twitter account alleging that the accused were associated with the BJP. “This is a conspiracy against KCR ji's Government by BJP's big leaders,” he tweeted.
Another TRS leader said that the accused were agents of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
TRS MLA Balka Suman alleged that the BJP was resorting to cheap tactics due to fear of defeat in the Munugode Assembly bye-election. He claimed that the TRS MLAs foiled the conspiracy of BJP. “The BJP leaders should know that the TRS MLAs and Telangana people are not for sale,” he said.
However, the BJP, denying the allegations of engineering defections, dubbed the incident a “drama.” In a late night press meet, BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay said, “Everyone is laughing looking at the incident. At least one per cent of the drama should be believable. The ones who gave the complaint are themselves [the TRS leaders], the victims are themselves, and the accused are themselves.”
Rubbishing the claims of the BJP’s involvement in the incident, Sanjay said that the accused have photos together with the BJP leaders as well as the TRS leaders. “There are so many photos of TRS leaders and Ministers with the accused. Does that mean that they are associated with everyone?”
Sanjay alleged that the TRS government has yet again used Stephen Ravindra to orchestrate another “drama.” According to him, the alleged conspiracy to eliminate Excise Minister Srinivas Goud in the past was “staged” by the Cyberabad Police Commissioner. “The same Commissioner’s drama company has repeated the drama. And both of the dramas are a failure.”
BJP national vice-president D K Aruna said that those named by the police were not BJP leaders. She alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was doing a new drama for political mileage. She said people would not believe KCR's story. Opposing horse-trading, the TRS leaders staged protests in different parts of the state on Wednesday night.
TRS leaders staged a dharna at Choutuppal near Hyderabad on Vijayawada highway. Ministers Gangula Kamalakar and Indrakaran Reddy participated in the protest. The protesters raised slogans against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They alleged that the saffron party was trying to pull down the TRS government by luring its MLAs with offers of money and posts. The protest led to a traffic jam on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway. Similar protests were organised by the ruling party leaders in other districts.
Munugude will be going for polls on November 3. The bye-poll was necessitated following the resignation of legislator Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy as the MLA of Munugode constituency. Reddy also quit the Congress party and joined the BJP.