RSS ‘brokers’ sought to buy four TRS MLAs, with Modi's blessings: KCR
Ahead of Munugode bypoll, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) Sunday claimed that RSS ‘brokers’ tried to bribe four MLAs of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). He was referring to last week’s ‘Operation Farmhouse,’ in which three alleged RSS-BJP middlemen, who attempted to lure four TRS MLAs to defect to the BJP, were trapped by Telangana police. KCR also lauded the four MLAs, who allegedly “refused ₹100-crore offer to switch the party and stood by the truth in Telangana”.
“Munugode bypoll is a contest between Telangana’s self-respect and the cruel politics of defections of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” KCR said, addressing a public meeting at Chandur in Munugode Assembly constituency as part of the campaign for party’s nominee Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy. KCR narrated how ‘Operation Farmhouse’ unfolded, and led to the arrest of the three RSS men.
More ‘startling details’ in the offing
The CM introduced all four TRS MLAs, the alleged targets of BJP’s covert operation, to the public and appreciated their courage. “The four MLAs, Tandur MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy, Dalit MLA Guvvala Balaraju from Achampet, Kolhapur MLA Harshavardhan Reddy and tribal MLA Rega Kantha Rao from Pinapaka kicked away the money offered and exposed the BJP’s dirty game. They elevated Telangana’s self-respect to the height of Himalayas,” KCR said.
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KCR said all the brokers were now cooling their heels in Chanchalguda Prison, and the threatened the BJP that a few more “startling details” that are bound to “haunt” the BJP would come to light soon. In his first reaction to the episode, in which the middlemen offered Rs 100 crore to TRS MLA Pilot Rohit Reddy (Tandur) to switch loyalties, the CM alleged that the RSS leaders came down to Hyderabad to buy Telangana’s self-respect with the blessings from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
‘Why does Modi want to buy MLAs?’
The bypoll is necessitated by the resignation of Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, who quit the Assembly to get re-elected on the BJP ticket. The constituency has traditionally been a Congress bastion. The grand old party has become rudderless following the defeat in the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections. Now, the BJP has been trying to fill in the gap and has been able to give a tough time to the ruling TRS.
Coming close on the heels of the transformation of TRS into Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) last month, the Munugode bypoll assumes political significance for all parties in the fray. The ruling TRS feels a win here would be public endorsement to the BRS and KCR’s foray into national politics. The CM said it made him wonder as why Prime Minister Modi was “resorting to buying MLAs”.
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“Occupying the chair of Prime Minister of India was in itself a big achievement. He has been offered the post twice. What more does he want? Why was Modi plotting to topple the state government? He is targeting 20 to 30 MLAs in Telangana to topple the TRS government,” KCR alleged, cautioning people to think twice before choosing TRS and a party that is trying to destabilise the state governments.
To waves of cheers and applause, KCR assured the people a new revenue division, new roads, the completion of Charlaguda Project and many more welfare measures if they elected the TRS candidate, who lost to the Congress in 2018. “Don’t feed grass to donkeys and expect the cow to give milk,” he said, referring to the lack of development in the constituency.
