HIGH DRAMA in Telangana over BJP's 'attempt to BUY MLAs', TRS leaders stage protest

Hyderabad: Telangana ministers and leaders of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) staged protests in different parts of the state on Wednesday night to protest against what they called an “attempt by the BJP to buy TRS MLAs.” TRS leaders staged a dharna at Choutuppal near Hyderabad on the Vijayawada highway. Ministers Gangula Kamalakar and Indrakaran Reddy participated in the protest.

The protesters raised slogans against BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They alleged that the saffron party was trying to pull down the TRS government by luring its MLAs with offers of money and posts.

The protest led to a traffic jam on the Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway. Similar protests were organised by the ruling party leaders in other districts. Earlier, police claimed that it caught three persons while they were trying to `buy` four MLAs of TRS. The four were detained during a raid at a farmhouse at Aziz Nagar on the city outskirts while offering money to four MLAs. Cyberabad police conducted the raids on a tip-off by the legislators. Cyberabad Police Commissioner Stephen Ravindra said the deal could be to the tune of Rs 100 crore.

TRS MLAs Rega Kantha Rao, Guvvala Balaraju, Beeram Harshvardhan Reddy and Pilot Rohit Reddy had alerted police that attempts were being made to lure them to switch loyalties. Those detained are Ramachandra Bharati alias S Satish Sharma from Delhi and Simhayajulu from Tirupati, both said to be temple priests and Nanda Kumar, a businessman from Hyderabad said to be close to a union minister.

Meanwhile, four MLAs met Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao at Pragati Bhavan, the official residence of the chief minister. Ministers KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao were also present. In the meeting, KCR discussed the latest developments with ministers and other party leaders.

Hitting back at the ruling TRS, Telangana BJP leaders DK Aruna and the BJP MP from Nizamabad, D Arvind, said Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his party organised the "horse-trade drama" to distract attention from Munugode. "It is a drama. KCR understood that the TRS is losing in Munugode. So they orchestrated this drama," BJP leader Vivek Venkataswamy said.