HYDERABAD: BRS working president KT Rama Rao waited at Telangana Bhavan on Thursday for Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao, claiming the minister had agreed to debate the state’s finances but failed to turn up.
Meanwhile, former minister T Harish Rao and other BRS leaders, who attempted to proceed to Gun Park for the debate, were taken into preventive custody by the police, shifted to Kanchanbagh police station and later released. During the police action, Harish Rao slipped and fell while being escorted. Police also stopped Rama Rao when he later tried to proceed to Gun Park.
“I am waiting for Krishna Rao to come to Telangana Bhavan to have a debate. But he did not turn up so far,” Rama Rao said.
Rama Rao alleged that the Congress government had retreated from the debate after repeatedly challenging the BRS over Telangana’s debt. He said the confrontation began after Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy invited BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao to debate the state’s finances in the Assembly and claimed that Jupally Krishna Rao had subsequently agreed to a public debate on Thursday. To underscore the invitation, Rama Rao said he had arranged a chair and a shawl for the minister at Telangana Bhavan and waited for more than three hours.
“Instead of turning up, the minister chose to hide, and the government orchestrated high drama elsewhere,” Rama Rao alleged.
He condemned the detention of BRS leaders and challenged the chief minister to convene a special session of the Assembly if the government was prepared to defend its claims. He also accused the Congress of resorting to “Shikhandi politics” to divert attention from its governance and what he described as “420 unfulfilled electoral promises”.
Harish Rao alleged that the Congress government prevented the debate by deploying the police and stopping BRS leaders from reaching the venue. He also questioned the credibility of the government’s debt claims, alleging that Krishna Rao had cited different figures on the liabilities inherited from the previous BRS government. He said the government’s actions showed it was unwilling to defend its allegations in public.