Telangana: TRS Cooking Fake Stories Against BJP Fearing Defeat In Munugode By-Election, Says Chugh

Munugode By-Election: Chugh demanded an Election Commission investigation into the entire incident, claiming that the state police were complicit in the conspiracy.

The National general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and also in charge of the party's Telengana unit, Tarun Chugh on Thursday strongly condemned the reported incident in which the BJP attempted to woo four Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) MLAs at a farm house in Moinabad, Hyderabad, and claimed that the TRS was planting cock and bull stories to malign the BJP and divert people's attention away from the core issues that will determine the outcome of the Munugode by-election.

He stated that the entire incident, which was stage-managed by the Chief Minister, exemplifies his utter frustration.

After sitting MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy left the Congress and joined the BJP a few months ago, a bypoll for the Munugode assembly segment is scheduled for November 3. Reddy is now running for the BJP against former TRS MLA Kusukuntla Prabhakar Reddy and Congress MLA Palvai Sravanthi Reddy.

Chugh demanded an Election Commission investigation into the entire incident, claiming that the state police were complicit in the conspiracy.

Chugh questioned why the MLAs in question were not taken to the police station for their statements to be recorded, and what conditions warranted the presence of an ADG rank police officer at the alleged scene of the offence.

"What happened to the money? Who are these intermediaries? Who in the BJP gave them the authority to negotiate with TRS MLAs?," Chugh stated. 

"The sequence of events indicates that the entire event is orchestrated by the ruling party in order to influence the upcoming Munugodu election," Chugh said. 

The Telangana Police on Wednesday night seized a large sum of money from a farmhouse on the outskirts of Hyderabad that was "meant to be offered to four MLAs of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) to quit their party" by 'BJP agents,' officials said, news agency PTI reported. 

While TRS leaders claim that 'BJP agents' offered one of the four MLAs Rs 100 crore and the others Rs 50 crore each, the saffron party has dismissed the alleged poaching attempts as a political drama scripted by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

TRS social media convenor M Krishank tweeted, "It was a conspiracy against KCR Ji's Government by BJP's big leaders" (sic), and shared photos of the arrested individuals with union minister G Kishan Reddy. Minister and TRS working president KT Rama Rao also retweeted the post.

TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's "another drama," according to BJP leader and national vice-president D K Aruna.

She accused Rao of "cheap politics," saying no one would believe the "cinema-like" story being peddled ahead of the bypoll, and demanded that the chief minister swear before the Yadadari Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy deity that he had no role in the development.