Hyderabad: 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 asks.
Speaking about the broker, KCR said, “Ramachandra Bharati, a broker met Tandoor MLA Rohit Reddy despite Reddy’s unwillingness. Then Reddy complained to us and we took it the home ministry. One cannot lose any more governments to the BJP. They will destroy Telangana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan by poaching or any other means. We have already lost so many governments. We cannot lose anymore.”
“The brokers in the video discuss the amount offered to party leaders quiet openly. As one broker remarks 15 crores, the others laugh. Ramachandra Bharati is the one in the blue shirt speaking about bribes. He is the one responsible for fake IDs. The other man is Simhayyaji from Tirupati, the other man is a broker from Hyderabad. These are the three men,” said KCR as people of Munugode voted in the bypoll on Thursday.
“ED to Income tax is under us, says BJP. With so much indignance, they speak like this. The people who tried to poach ahead of Munugode spoke live as well. They were contacted by a man named Tushar, a BJP candidate who campaigned against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, Kerala. He was declared a candidate by Union home minister Amit Shah,” KCR remarks holding up a photograph of Shah and Tushar.
KCR further says, “I request only one thing: When NTR’s government was attacked, we all got together and attacked. If you listen to this, it will shock you. The video also says that MLAs in Karnataka were poached by these brokers. They explain how they go to Mumbai, everything is given in the video. Amit Shah’s name alone is mentioned 20 times, he mentioned PM Modi twice.
Where are they getting these 100 crores from? He (Tushar) mentions that they have spent 1200 crores on buying MLAs. The judiciary alone has saved this country time and again and they need to do the same now. Allahabad High Court gave a verdict against Indira Gandhi. That is how the fight started. The video says that the Maharashtra poaching case was carried out from a resort. “I stay at AIIMS in Delhi, I roam in a chartered flight, do what we want he says shamelessly.”
“We need to view this as a great concern. When cops seized their phone, they got the call data. Their entire history from 2015 has been submitted to the high court. All call logs and laptop data is 1000 page evidence,” continues KCR.
‘Appeal to PM Modi’
“I became the CM the same time you became the PM, Prime Minister Modi. We worked together. I also hold a Constitutional position. Take responsibility, PM Modi. Protect your name in history. Till where can this go? Put an end to this. The entire youth of this country, as well as the intellectuals, democracy lovers, just remember Jayaprakash Narayan. Remember Gandhi, Nehru, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel who could have just lived life lavishly. They didn’t. Don’t ruin India.” he concludes.
Background of the MLAs poaching case:
KCR’s ‘revelations’ come a week after three BJP-linked men were arrested by the Cyberabad police at Moinabad while they were trying to allegedly poach four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs from the state. One of the MLAs, Pilot Rohit Reddy, reportedly informed the police, which busted the attempt and arrested the three accused. They have been identified as Ramachandra Bharati, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy.
“This is not okay. We should fight against this. I became the CM the same time you became the PM, Prime Minister Modi. We worked together. I also hold a Constitutional position. Take responsibility, PM Modi. Protect your name in history,” said KCR.
He also alleged that the BJP was planning to bring down Telangana government, then the AAP-run Delhi government and also his Andhra Pradesh counterpart. “The accused trio have multiple aadhar cards, driving licenses and PAN cards,” he said, and further claimed that the accused have toppled eight governments so far. “I urge CJI Lalit and all high court chief justices to save the country. Otherwise the country will be in danger,” said KCR.
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 had 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-bench budge. 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.
