People chose development, self-respect over BJP’s money politics: KTR
Hyderabad: The people of Munugode have shown that development and self-respect matter to them more than money, this despite the BJP’s top functionaries running their poll campaign directly from Delhi, TRS (now BRS) working president and Minister KT Rama Rao said.
Besides electing the TRS (BRS) in three of five by-elections since the 2018 Assembly elections, the people of Telangana have now gifted all 12 Assembly seats in the erstwhile Nalgonda district to the party, he said.
“The people of Munugode constituency have hoisted the Telangana‘s self-respect flag high by electing Koosukuntla Prabhakar Reddy,” he said while interacting with the media at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday. He thanked the party cadre as well as the Left leadership for their support.
Coming down heavily on the BJP for forcing the bypolls on the people of Munugode to fulfill the party’s political ambitions, Rama Rao said the BJP, which toppled governments in nine States, had resorted to dirty politics in Telangana to destabilise the State government. “The BJP tried all the tricks in its playbook – from misusing the constitutional institutions to violating the election code and spending hundreds of crores of rupees, to win the byelection,” he said.
Rama Rao also slammed the BJP for turning the entire election into a matter of money. He reminded that major cash seizures by the election authorities was done from the close aides of BJP State leaders, while former MP G Vivek had officially and also through the Hawala network, pumped in more than Rs 75 crore. Even though the TRS (BRS) complained to the ECI about BJP candidate Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy’s family-owned company Sushi Infra transferring Rs 5.22 crore directly into bank accounts of some BJP leaders and individuals in Munugode constituency, the BJP pressurised the Election Commission to remain a blind spectator.
He rubbished the BJP’s allegations over the TRS (BRS) distributing cash and liquor, as well as blaming the Election Commission for ignoring them. He wondered if the BJP State president was aware that the ECI was within the Centre’s purview. He pointed out that the Centre deployed 15 CRPF companies comprising 80 personnel each and 40 Income Tax teams comprising 10 members each. “If the TRS (BRS) was distributing cash and liquor, wouldn’t 15 CRPF companies and 40 IT teams get a whiff of it?
Why were only the BJP’s associates caught with huge cash?” he asked.
Pointing out that the BJP succeeded only in perhaps denting the TRS (BRS) majority slightly with all its tricks, he said the BJP was unable to digest defeat and was making baseless allegations. “We too can blame the ECI for allowing the ‘road roller’ and other symbols similar to our ‘Car’ symbol as they polled nearly 6,000 votes, reducing our majority,” he added.
The Minister slammed the BJP leaders for resorting to poll violence and injuring over 12 TRS (BRS) cadre, apart from relying on dramas to get sympathy votes as was done in the previous byelections. He said the saffron party had polluted the entire electioneering process with fake news, fake surveys, IT raids, and even fielding fake candidates.
Responding to allegations, the TRS (BRS) working president questioned why Prime Minister Modi, union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP national leaders campaigning in GHMC elections was justified, but that by the TRS in Munugode bypolls was not. On continuing the alliance with Left parties, he said that would be decided by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao and the top leaders of the Left parties. He added that the action plan of the BRS would be decided after the Election Commission recognised it officially as a national party.
