HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments are grinding their axes for a showdown in Hyderabad as it became more or less clear on Tuesday that the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) is set to slap notices on AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the cash-for-vote case.
In fact, late in the night, the ACB served a notice on TDP MLA S Venkata Veeraiah, summoning him for questioning as his name figured in the call list of the original complainant in the case, Telangana nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson.
The political temperature in the common capital climbed up a few notches in the morning itself amid speculation that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao cleared an “important decision”. ACB Director General AK Khan had two rounds of closed-door meetings with KCR, triggering rumours that the latter may have given the go ahead either to serve notices on Naidu or name him directly in the chargesheet or even, arrest a few in the case.
In a tit-for-tat response, the CID of the AP police is understood to be ready with notices for Chandrasekhar Rao himself for allegedly tapping the phones of Naidu and his cabinet colleagues.
Sources told Express the AP government has “hard proof’’ to establish beyond a shadow of doubt that phones of TDP leaders were being tapped for a long time.
It is learnt that amid this high drama, a team from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is likely to arrive in Hyderabad on Wednesday to possibly find a solution to the crisis between the two states.
On Tuesday, though, the Raj Bhavan turned into a ‘situation room’ so to speak — several top government functionaries from both the States and even the Acting Chief Justice of the Hyderabad High Court, not to speak of political leaders of all hues made a beeline to meet Governor ESL Narasimhan. Chandrababu Naidu, on his part, was busy discussing strategies with his Cabinet colleagues and officials.
Adding to the escalating tension, he brought a posse of Andhra Pradesh police personnel to provide security at his residence, NTR Trust
Bhavan, the TDP headquarters, and his ministers’ houses. The Telangana state police also beefed up security at the Secretariat, Forensic Science Laboratory, where the audio and video tapes pertaining to the cash-for-vote case are being tested, and other important offices in the city.
