Hyderabad: The tri-cornered melodrama that has been unfolding between Huzurabad BRS MLA P Kaushik Reddy, Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi (who defected to the ruling Congress) and Siddipet MLA and ex-BRS minister T Harish Rao, continued for another day with the police house-arresting most of the BRS MLAs and leaders from the morning itself.
The episode is a fall-out of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MLC Shambhipur Raju’s announcement that he, along with Kaushik Reddy would go to Gandhi’s residence to hold a BRS party meeting on Friday.
Harish Rao was house-arrested at his residence in Kokapet since morning. When BRS MLA Sunitha Laxma Reddy and former MP Maloth Kavitha went to meet him, the police obstructed them, saying that they needed the police commissioner’s permission to meet him.
Though the two BRS women leaders tried to explain that they only wanted to visit him and check on his health condition after he suffered an injury in his left shoulders, the police didn’t heed to their request. When the women leaders tried to make a sit-in there, the police detained them both and shifted to the police station.
When Harish Rao tried to venture out of his residence to go for an MRI at AIG Hospitals, the police initially stopped him, but soon escorted him to the hospital for a check-up.
Speaking with media from his residence, Harish Rao said that BRS wasn’t looking at the attack on Kaushik Reddy’s residence as an act perpetrated by Gandhi. He said that the Congress government is trying to divert the attention of the people from real issues by resorting to such acts.
“When we questioned what happened to farm loan waiver they attacked my office in Siddipet. When we questioned the government about the flood relief measures in Khammam stones were pelted against us. Now, when the court has taken a serious note of the defected MLAs Kaushik’s residence was attacked,” Harish Rao stated.
Questioning whether there was any “law and order prevailing in the state”, Harish Rao said that BRS leaders cooperated with the police during their arrest on Thursday night, as they didn’t want to create any problem for the police. He reminded how the chief minister had reportedly used abusive language against the police when he was house-arrested during the BRS rule.
Harish Rao questioned why no cases were booked against Congress workers who had pelted stones against him, and wondered why the police were giving royal treatment in police station to those who attacked Kaushik Reddy’s residence.
He urged the DGP and higher-ups in the police department to act in an unbiased manner. “You can pelt as many stones as you can. Those stones will become the foundation stones for the BRS to come back to power,” Harish asserted.
This is Revanth Reddy v/s Kaushik Reddy
Kaushik Reddy, who tried to go to Arekapudi Gandhi’s residence to hold a BRS meeting as announced by his party was arrested by the police and confined him to his residence.
Addressing the media, Kaushik said that he didn’t mean to hurt the sentiments of settlers by his statements, but only directed his criticism against Arekapudi Gandhi alone. He said he respected those coming from Andhra to make a livelihood in Hyderabad.
Unapologetic about his misogynistic act of bringing a saree and bangles to a press meet on Thursday, Kaushik Reddy said that the chief minister and all the Congress MLAs who were targeting him, had stooped to his level, which has made the war Revanth Reddy versus Kaushik Reddy. Accusing the Congress government of trying to kill him, he said that he was ready to die for Telangana.
BRS getting bad name due to a pest called Kaushik Reddy
Arekapudi Gandhi had a visitor on Friday morning in the form of MLA Danam Nagender, who also defected from the BRS to the Congress recently. The latter questioned how BRS leaders remembered Gandhi’s residence after all these years, and wondered whether a party meeting is held in a residence or the party office.
Addressing the media, Gandhi said that he had high respect for BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and the pink party, but due to “pests” like Kaushik Reddy who had no control over his words and actions, BRS was getting a bad name. He said that more MLAs would leave the party due to the bad behaviour of Kaushik Reddy.
Accusing Kaushik Reddy of trying to create a rift between the Telugu-speaking people, Gandhi questioned what could be made of Kaushik Reddy’s statement that he would visit his house, give him a BRS scarf and take him to KCR.
