HYDERABAD: Reacting to TPCC president A Revanth Reddy’s angry outburst after taking an oath at Bhagyalakshmi temple at Charminar on Saturday evening that he has not taken a single rupee from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the Congress’ Munugode by-election campaign, BJP MLA Eatala Rajender on Saturday clarified that he had not named any particular leader from the Congress who took Rs 25 crore and that he was only referring to certain recent developments which pointed towards a flourishing brotherhood between the BRS and the Congress.
Speaking to the media at his residence in Shamirpet, he said that as politicians people will make allegations that they cannot prove immediately and reminded that even in the ‘vote-for-note’ case in which Revanth is an accused, the allegations needed to be proved.
“I only said that thousands of crores were being spent, by setting a value to the voters and their self-respect. Don’t we know how many crores of rupees were spent to defeat Revanth in Kodangal? Was it, not Jana Reddy who admitted that people like him couldn’t afford the present-day electoral politics involving huge sums of money,” he asked.
BRS, Cong two sides of the same coin: Eatala
Supporting his claim of Congress and BRS being the two sides of the same coin, Eatala reminded how the chief minister had responded to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s suspension from MP’s post. “I won’t criticise anyone without any basis. I don’t encourage people to go to the temples and take oaths. BJP is a party with self-confidence, and it is not in the culture of BJP to go to temples for such issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy said that people knew very well how Revanth misused power and made thousands of crores by blackmailing people.
“Devotees believe that if a person like him who has constantly been indulging in political manoeuvring enters the Bhagyalakshmi temple, the temple will lose its sanctity. It is not proper for such a person to use the temple for his selfish gains,” he said.
Rajgopal Reddy questioned Revanth whether he had not paid huge sums to the Congress high command to get the TPCC president’s post, whether he was not sharing business interests with BRS MLC K Kavitha, and whether it was not he who had gone to jail in the vote-for-note case.
“Isn’t it true that Congress leaders are saying that the party received Rs 25 crore from BRS during the Munugode bypoll, and you took Rs 10 crore from that amount? Isn’t it true that if BJP had won in Munugode bypoll Congress would have been finished, so you joined hands with BRS to defeat BJP,” he asked Revanth.
Also reminding Revanth of how he had accused him of receiving contracts worth Rs 18,000 crore to join BJP, Rajgopal Reddy warned the TPCC chief that he will certainly go to jail for defaming him during the by-election.
Condemning the “unparliamentary” language used by Revanth against Eatala, party vice-president DK Aruna said that BJP was not going to tolerate a leader representing backward classes abused in such a way. She said that the developments observed during the Huzurabad, Dubbak, and Munugode bypolls had proved that BRS and Congress were together, and said that the way Congress leaders were criticising Eatala, it was clear that the script was coming from the CM. She also questioned why a BRS MLC was criticising Eatala, when the issue was between BJP and Congress, which she felt was yet another proof of “bromance” between BRS and Congress.