Telangana BJP MP Soyam Bapurao has purportedly confessed to misusing the local area funds for his personal use. A video that shows the Adilabad MP announcing to BJP cadre that he used the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLAD) funds to build a house necessitated by his son’s wedding has gone viral, with the opposition seeking action against Bapurao for exploiting the scheme. As per the guidelines, the MPLAD fund is meant for development works and the creation of durable community assets. “Individual benefits and movable and non-durable assets (certain exemptions excepted) are generally not allowed under the scheme,” the guideline states. Usually, these funds are set aside for local development needs such as roads, electricity, drinking water, health, and education.
In the video, Bapurao is heard saying, “Since I did not have a house, I used some money from the funds as well. No other leader might confess this, but I am admitting it. The previous useless MPs had exploited them completely, but I used only a small portion of it.”
A purported video of Adilabad #BJP MP Soyam Bapu Rao goes viral where he confesses that he used Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) funds to construct his house and son's wedding and said he is ‘not like previous MPs who swindled total fund’. The video has given… pic.twitter.com/aBRzOPNwkA
— Ashish (@KP_Aashish) June 19, 2023
TNM tried reaching out to the MP for further comments on the issue, but he was unavailable.
Later in the evening, addressing the media, Bapurao claimed that he did not misuse any funds. Claiming that some BJP leaders were conspiring against him, he said that he will resign as the MP if the allegation of misuse of funds were proved. He also said, "Something which was spoken internally should not have been shared in public to tarnish my reputation."
An Adivasi leader, Bapurao led the Adivasi organisation Tudum Debba, which is considered a left-leaning outfit. He joined the TRS party (now BRS) in 2004 and was elected from the Boath constituency as the MLA. He quit the party and joined the Congress in 2006 but was not elected to power till 2019. He later joined the BJP and won the MP seat with a huge margin of nearly 59,000 votes.
The MP was suspended from Tudum Debba after he tilted towards Hindutva politics, where he started openly spreading hatred against the Muslim community under the garb of ‘love jihad’.
