HYDERABAD: TRS activists vandalised Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind’s Hyderabad residence on Friday, a day after the BJP leader said that TRS MLC and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K Kavitha called up AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and expressed her wish to join the Congress.
Apparently incensed by the statement, Kavitha on Friday said that she would ‘slap Arvind with a chappal in the main centre of Nizamabad and beat him to death’. “Check with Kharge whether I called him or not,” she told reporters.
Arvind, who was in Nizamabad when his Hyderabad residence was vandalised, alleged that the TRS goondas also attacked his mother. The TRS activists, however, denied this. The TRS activists damaged the flower vases and glass doors of Arvind’s house.
Speaking to the media in Nizamabad, the BJP MP alleged that Kavitha made comments against him out of ‘caste arrogance’. He wondered why Kavitha “did not beat her father who claimed that the BJP tried to lure her into its fold”. Arvind dared Kavitha to contest the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat again in the next polls.
Following the attack on Arvind’s residence, tension prevailed in Hyderabad as BJP activists tried to proceed to Pragathi Bhavan to stage a protest. However, the police nipped the protest in the bud by taking them into custody at the BJP party office itself.
A posse of policemen has been deployed at the BJP office and also at Pragathi Bhavan. The war of words between Kavitha and Arvind had intensified after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after the BJP leader wrested the Nizamabad LS seat from her.
Speaking to reporters, Kavitha warned Arvind not to make statements as per his whims and fancies. “Arvind’s contribution to Telangana is nil. He failed to bring turmeric board to Nizamabad, which he promised during the Lok Sabha polls,” she charged.
Kavitha said that she would ensure the defeat of Arvind from wherever he contests the next elections. She advised Arvind to check the facts with Kharge. Arvind on Thursday said that Kavitha was not invited to the TRS meeting held in October, in which the name of TRS was changed as BRS and that she called Kharge the next day.
“A senior functionary of AICC told me that Kavitha was joining Congress and called up Kharge. I told him that Kavitha would not join the Congress and she was only threatening her father. Kavitha herself leaked the ‘phone call with Kharge’ to her father,” Arvind claimed. However, TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy said that he recently met Kharge and the latter had not mentioned anything about Kavitha calling him over phone.
Though Kavitha refuted the allegations of Arvind that she tried to join the Congress, the TRS MLC admitted that ‘some friends’ in BJP brought ‘some proposals’ with her to join the saffron party. She alleged that there would be no ED, CBI and I-T raids on those leaders, who joined BJP. While several TRS leaders condemned Arvind’s statement on Kavitha, BJP leaders in one voice found fault with the TRS for the attack on the MP’s residence.
BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh alleged that TRS leaders have been repeatedly taking recourse to violent and murderous attacks on BJP leaders emboldened by the assurances of their top leadership. He said that it was unbecoming of a people’s representative like Kavitha to use expressions like ‘kill’ and ‘beat’.
‘I’ve only one leader and that is KCR’
“There have been multiple proposals given to me by various people. I am a very decent politician. I want to remain in politics for a long time. I am not going to name anybody. There have been proposals that were brought up to me by friends of BJP and friendly organisations of BJP asking me to join the party. They proposed a model called “Shinde Model”. I said do not cheat the people of Telangana. Telangana people do not betray their own leaders or parties. We will become leaders on our own strength and not by back door methods. I have politely rejected their proposal. What they do after that is a different story. There will be multiple proposals in politics. Some are accepted and some are rejected. I categorically rejected proposals that are brought to me. Because my heart is always in the party where my leader is. I have only one leader in my entire life and that is KCR. My entire political career is with KCR.”