HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman has alleged that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao did not have a woman minister in his cabinet from 2014 till September 2019, just because some ‘tantrik’ had warned him that such a move would spell doom for his government.
Speaking to the media in New Delhi on Saturday, she said that the chief minister who had abstained from going to the secretariat on the advice of a ‘tantrik’ finally ordered the demolition of the structure and the building of a new one in its place. Sitharaman said that it’s the misfortune of the Telangana people that they had a CM who was guided by tantriks and numerologists.
Observing that the ruling TRS failed miserably in fulfilling the promise of providing water, funds and jobs, which was the party’s slogan during the separate Statehood movement, she felt that the people were not in a position to believe that TRS was going to do any good to the country by changing its name to BRS.
Meanwhile, addressing the media at the party office in Hyderabad, BJP State president Bandi Sanjay hurled similar charges at Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. He accused Rao of performing occult practices at the behest of a ‘tantrik’ and offering to pay ` 40,000 to each voter to win Munugode by-election.
The State BJP chief alleged that every decision taken by the chief minister was under the guidance of the ‘tantrik’, whether it was launching BRS on October 5, or even venturing out of Pragathi Bhavan or his farmhouse at Erravelli.
Sanjay also accused Rao of performing black magic at his farmhouse using a black cat and immersing the paraphernalia used during such ‘tantrik’ rituals in Kaleshwaram. He appealed to Vedic priests, swamis and people who believed in democracy to save Telangana from Rao’s ‘ways’.
On TRS working president KT Rama Rao calling the CBI and ED as hunting dogs let loose by the BJP against political opponents, Sanjay asked whether the TRS leaders were expecting the investigating agencies to play mute spectators to the kind of corruption and loot being perpetrated by them in the State.
He also questioned why the chief minister did not offer an explanation or deny the allegations levelled against his family members in connection with the Tollywood drug case, the Chikoti Praveen gambling episode or the Delhi liquor scam.
Led by Lingala Hari Goud, several people from the Malakpet constituency joined the BJP in the presence of Sanjay on the occasion. In an apparently coordinated campaign on Saturday, BJP leaders turned the focus on alleged ‘tantrik’ rituals being performed by the CM.
Another BJP leader and Munugode by-poll candidate Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, in a tweet, said, “KCR family is unable to wash their hands of the criminal attempts to loot the public. They’re now trying to wash their hands with Tantric mantras & the blood of cats and God knows what other beings have been sacrificed in this mad lust for power (sic)”