Leaders of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Opposition Congress in Telangana traded allegations after Member of Legislative Assembly Guvvala Balaraju was injured in an alleged attack by Congress workers, on Sunday, November 12. Balaraju is also the BRS candidate from Atchampet (SC) constituency of Nagarkurnool district, in the upcoming Assembly elections. The incident took place around 3 am on Sunday when Congress workers stopped the MLA’s car alleging that he was going to distribute money in the constituency. Visuals of the incident show the MLA being attacked even as the police were present.
Balaraju was admitted to Apollo Hospital in Hyderabad, where BRS working president KT Rama Rao called on him. The MLA, who was later discharged from the hospital, alleged that Congress candidate from Stchampet Vamshi Krishna and his supporters had attacked him and other BRS workers. He told media persons that Vamshi Krishna had attacked him with a stone. Balaraju further said that he will not be deterred by such attacks and will continue to serve people. He said that as the son of a migrant labourer, he was elected twice by the people and unable to face him politically, the Congress candidate was resorting to physical attacks.
KT Rama Rao told media persons that Congress party leaders were resorting to physical attacks in desperation as they realised that they were losing [the election]. He said that this was the second such incident. Earlier, BRS Member of Parliament K Prabhakar Reddy was injured when he was stabbed while campaigning in Dubbaka Assembly constituency.
However, state Congress chief A Revanth Reddy said that the alleged attack on Balaraju was a drama by the ruling party. Citing the knife attack on Andhra Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy and leg injury to Bengal’s CM Mamata Banerjee, he said that such conspiracies were common in states where Prashant Kishor is an election strategist. Revanth Reddy also said that the alleged attacks on Balaraju and Prabhakar Reddy were part of a conspiracy to gain political mileage.
He added that the police statement that Prabhakar Reddy was attacked was made to create a sensation. The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief asked why the police had not presented Raju, who had attacked Prabhakar Reddy, before the media. Even the remand report in the case has not been made public. He demanded that the police reveal all the details of the case.
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Revanth Reddy alleged that KTR had circulated a fake letter by Congress leader and Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to Foxconn to shift their plant from Hyderabad to Bengaluru. He said that BRS brought some hired people from Karnataka to run a false campaign against the Congress. The Congress leader said that despite complaints to the Election Commission about these conspiracies, it took no action.
Assembly elections in Telangana are scheduled to be held on November 30, with the Congress being the main opposition to the ruling BRS. In the 2018 elections, the BRS had won 88 out of 119 seats, while the Congress and Telugu Desam Party in an alliance won just 19 and two seats respectively.