CHITTOOR: The pre-dawn raids by a six-member team of Income Tax officials in the posh residence of D.K. Badrinarayana, Telugu Desam Party district vice-president, at Lakshminagar Colony here on Wednesday created a flutter, while juxtaposing the development, batches of party cadres kept pouring in to the locality to greet the leader on his birthday.
According to information, the I-T team arrived at Mr. Badrinarayana’s house in the early hours. Once they entered, the gates remained shut to the party activists and public. The I-T raids was part of the centralised operation on TN chief secretary Ramamohan Rao’s residence, and those belonging to his kith and kin, and close relatives in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Mr Badrinarayana recently got his daughter married to Mr. Ramamohan Rao’s son.
Badrinarayana is the younger son of former TTD chairman and industrialist late D.K. Audikesavulu Naidu. After Audikesavulu Naidu’s demise a couple of years ago, Badrinarayana came into limelight in Chittoor politics. In 2014, widow of Audikesavulu Naidu, D.A. Satyaprabha, joined the TDP, and became Chittoor MLA. Since then, Mr. Badrinarayana is largely considered the driving force behind his sister-in-law, trying to take Chittoor politics into his hands. Despite having no post in the government, Mr. Badrinarayana could obtain official gunmen for him early this year, contending threat to his life.
Some of the senior TDP leaders, who maintain close links with D.K. family, observed that since the time when D.K. Audikesavulu Naidu was the TTD chairman, he had maintained association with Chennai-based Sekhar Reddy, the present TTD board member who was in question after detection of wades of currency in his possession. It was further felt that the former TTD chief might have even sought gold donation from Sekhar Reddy for his (DK) ambitious ‘Ananda Nilayam Anantha Swarnamayam project’ (gold plating of the inner complex) at Tirumala temple. The alleged association of Sekhar Reddy with the TN top official Rammohan Rao, who in turn became closer to DK family through marriage links, is largely viewed as vital parameters prompting the I-T raids post demonetisation exercise by the Centre.
A couple of months ago, the I-T sleuths raided MLA D.A. Satyaprabha’s house in the same Lakshminagar Colony locality. The raid which lasted for nearly one and half day remained a secret, and the officials avoided speaking to the media, though the MLA said that the officials had advised the family regarding some aspects of I-T payments, and that no seizures, either of documents or cash or gold, were made.
Meanwhile, several of the TDP cadres who reached Mr. Badrinayarayana’s residence with cakes and garlands finding their entry inside difficult, returned, hoping to revisit in the afternoon. Party cadres, who had access to speak to Mr Badrinarayana and perform his birthday celebration in a low-key affair said that he was not perturbed at the raids, and was busy furnishing details to the officials during the raids.
According to a police official, a CRPF party is likely to be posted in Chittoor, to prevent any untoward incident, considering I-T raids on the house of the influential TDP functionary.
