Hyderabad: The state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reportedly offered TRS MLAs Rs 100 crore and also allegedly threatened them with Enforcement Directorate raids, claimed Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy.
A day earlier on Wednesday, the Cyberabad police arrested three BJP ‘agents’ from a farm house in Moinabad who allegedly offered TRS MLAs over Rs 100 crore to defect. A case was booked against the three BJP-lined persons – Ramachandra Bharathi alias Satish Sharma of Delhi, Nanda Kumar of Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy of Tirupathi. All three have been arrested and are being questioned by the Cyberabad police.
The development comes just days before the upcoming Munugode by-poll that will be held on November 3. It was necessitated after ex-Congress MLA quit and joined the BJP. The by-election is expected to be a close call between the TRS and BJP.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Tandur MLA Rohith Reddy on whose complaint the police booked a case against the three persons, claimed he was threatened with ED and Central Bureau of Investigation raids. He further stated he was asked to accept Rs 100 crores and other prominent posts in government in addition to central government civil contracts.
The FIR issued by the Cyberabad police based on his complaint reads, “On September 26 one Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma native of Delhi and one Nanda Kumar resident of Hyderabad both of them belonging to BJP met the complainant (Rohith Reddy) and negotiated with him to not to contest as the candidate from TRS party and to join in BJP by resigning from TRS party and to contest in the next elections from BJP for which they offered him an amount of Rs.100 Crores (Hundred Crores) and also offered to give Central Government civil contract works and other High Central Government positions for monetary benefits and lured him to join in BJP,”
It further stated, “They also stated that if he has not joined BJP there will be criminal cases and raids by E.D./CBI and the Telangana Government led by TRS party will be toppled by them. Since the above inducement of bribe by a political party to the complainant is unethical, undemocratic and encourages corruption and polluting the Politics, he decided not to entertain such unethical practice by the above persons.”
On October 10, they again reportedly contacted Rohith Reddy and informed that they were coming in the afternoon hours to his farmhouse located at Aziz Nagar, Moinabad for negotiation. He claimed that he was asked to “mobilise” some other TRS MLAs and said they could be offered Rs 50 crore each to join BJP.
Rohith Reddy requested the Cyberabad police to take “necessary legal action” against the three persons who are behind this conspiracy for offering him bribes to resign from the TRS. A case has been registered under sections 120-B, 171-B r/w 171-E 506 r/w 34 IPC & Sec 8 of Prevention of corruption Act-1988 and is being investigated by the ACP Rajendrangar.
However, the BJP State leadership has denied all the allegations and said Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is “enacting a drama to gather public sympathy and political mileage ahead” of Munugode elections.
BJP denies, demands investigation
Bhartiya Janata Party leader and former MLA, D K Aruna, demanded a thorough investigation into the Moinabad farmhouse scam by an independent agency to bring out the truth in the entire affair.
“Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is enacting drama to get sympathy and drive political mileage in view of the forthcoming Munugode elections. He is cheating the public of Telangana and it is very unfortunate,” she said.
D K Aruna questioned the strategy of the TRS party adopted for the forthcoming Munugode elections and asked if mud slugging the BJP party will help in TRS party win. “All the four MLA’s who alleged of being lured to join BJP party and offered Rs. 100 crore actually have poor track record in their constituency. In survey they topped the list of poor performers in TRS party,” she claimed.
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