KCR afraid of his daughter’s arrest in Delhi excise policy scam: Telangana BJP chief

Hyderabad: Telangana BJP unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Friday said that the state chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao is afraid of his daughter and TRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha in the Delhi excise policy scam and that is the main reason behind this ‘ new drama’ of the ruling party’s MLAs being poached by the saffron party.

Sanjay said that the video that the chief minister put out of the alleged poaching was written, directed, and produced by KCR himself but was not believable to the people of Telangana.

“The MLAs that the TRS is projecting as heroes are actually OLX pieces,” he remarked and added that the chief minister is suffering from ‘depression’.

“The reason behind his depression is the information that his daughter Kavitha is completely struck in the Delhi excise scam. That is the reason why he withdrew permission for the CBI to enter Telangana. But the case is booked in Delhi. The CBI might come anytime, enquire and arrest her. That is why the chief minister is indulging in diversion tactics,” he alleged.

Upping the ante against BJP, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) on Thursday released a video of the alleged poaching attempt of his party MLAs by the saffron party. KCR, during a press conference, showed the video ‘evidence’ and said he has sent it to the Supreme Court Chief Justice of India (CJI), all chief justices of high courts, and even director generals of police (DGP) of other states.

“The PM only says in West Bengal that he is in touch with MLAs from Trinamool Congress. Further, they say, there will be an Eknath Shinde in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu. Even the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, says at Munugode campaign, we will crush the state government here. Other states’ leaders called me too. If we don’t all do our bit, we will crash,” says KCR.

“They also claim they have people in place at different zillas in Telangana. Can someone talk like this? Is this a tamasha (performance), a joke?” he asked.

The alleged poaching

Last week, TRS MLA Rohit Reddy in his complaint said that the BJP ‘agents’ offered the TRS MLAs Rs 100 crores and alleged that they were threatened with Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids if they don’t shift to the BJP. The TRS MLAs who were reportedly contacted are Rega Kantha Rao, Guvvala Balaraju, Beeram Harshvardhan Reddy, and Pilot Rohit Reddy. 

After the police arrested them, ån Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court rejected the remand request of the three accused in the case. Following that, the police approached the Telangana high court, they were asked the surrender by a single-judge bench. However, the BJP also filed a separate petition after which another single-bench judge asked the cops to stay investigation until November 3.

All of this happened a week before the Munugode bypoll, which was necessitated after ex-Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy quit and joined the BJP. The by-election is a three-way fight between the TRS, BJP and Congress, which has been historically winning the seat (aside from the CPI, which also won it a handful of times in the past). The bypoll is also likely to show which way the state will swing before the 2023 Telangana Assembly polls.