Telangana Congress has lodged a complaint with the Moinabad police in Hyderabad seeking an inquiry into the 12 MLAs who defected to the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (now BRS) in 2019 and club the case with the ongoing investigation into the allegations of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trying to lure four BRS MLAs.
The Telangana Congress president, A. Revanth Reddy along with the CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka; AICC secretary Sampath Kumar, TPCC working president, Mahesh Kumar Goud and others handed over the complaint to the Moinabad police where the BRS MLAs lodged the complaint against the BJP for allegedly luring four of its MLAs with money and other benefits.
The Congress in its complaint also sought inquiry against Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, who is also the president of the then TRS and now BRS. It said the offences were punishable under Sections 120-B and 171-B read with Sections 171A and 34 of the India Penal Code, 1860 and Sections 7, 8, 13 and 14 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The investigation should be clubbed with the complaint along with FIR bearing No. 455 of 2022 registered at Moinabad Police Station. The FIR is related to BJP trying to poach the BRS MLAs.
The Congress party further named all the 12 MLAs elected on Congress ticket and later defected to the then TRS and mentioned how each of them benefitted from switching loyalties and these include monetary and political benefits. The complaint said that Sabitha Indra Reddy was inducted into the State Cabinet while Devireddy Sudheer Reddy was made the Chairman of Musi River Front Development Corporation. Rega Kantha Rao was made a Whip in Assembly. Gandra Venkataramana Reddy got monetary benefits and his wife Jyothi was made the Chairperson of the Bhupalpally Zilla Parishad.
Those who got their contracts and other pending bills cleared included Kandala Upender Reddy, Vanama Venkateshwar Rao, Beeram Harshvardhan Reddy while those who were given money included Athram Sakku, Chirumarthi Lingaiah, Jajala Surender, Rohith Reddy and Haripriya Banoth.
The complaint further stated that the modus operandi alleged to have been adopted by the BJP in order to induce TRS MLAs to join BJP involved monetary benefits, Government civil contracts and other high Central Government positions involving monetary benefits are similar to the modus operandi adopted and benefits offered by the TRS and allied accused persons to the former Congress MLAs to lure them to join the TRS.
The complaint lodged by Mr. Rohith Reddy cannot be seen in isolation or independent from each other because there are overlapping persons in both instances of MLA poaching and defection. The investigating agency should unearth the complete chain of criminal conspiracy behind bribing public servants by political parties starting from the 12 MLAs defecting to the TRS.
Later, speaking to reporters Mr. Revanth Reddy and Mr. Vikramarka said that the 12 defected MLAs were in constant touch with the political heads of the TRS for the purposes of defection to TRS. Interestingly, three out of these 12 MLAs were now involved in the poaching by the BJP and a case was registered with FIR No. 455 of 2022 at Moinabad Police Station. Tandur MLA, Rohith Reddy is the complainant in the case.
The Congress leaders accused the State government of encouraging defections as a policy and it reflected in the developments since the State was formed. During the first term of TRS from 2014 to 2018, a total of 4 MPs, 25 MLAs and 18 MLCs from various political parties defected to TRS. “During the second term since December 2018, 12 MLAs and 4 MLCs from Congress defected,” they said.
