HYDERABAD: In a rather interesting development, BRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is scheduled to meet later this week his West Bengal counterpart and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, who has of late been busy mobilising support for her movement against the BJP for using investigation agencies to wreak vengeance against its political rivals.
Recently KCR, Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Tejashwi Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav sent a jointly signed letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on how the BJP is misusing the investigation agencies to harass the Opposition.
As KCR would be in the national capital a couple of days ahead of Kavitha’s second round of questioning, his meeting with Mamata too might act as some kind of pressure to prevent the ED from going against Kavitha's full throttle.
At the moment, KCR and other important functionaries of the BRS are busy consulting legal experts on how to circumvent the ED and protect Kavitha. Political analysts are wondering how Kavitha’s stance of skipping questioning on Thursday would ultimately pan out. They believe that avoiding ED would only complicate the issue and would give a handle to the BJP to go to town saying that Kavitha was dodging the agency as she has something to hide.
BRS leaders on tenterhooks
Meanwhile, BRS leaders are keeping their fingers crossed over what would happen on March 20, the day Kavitha has been asked to appear before the ED. The ED’s fresh notice came after Kavitha skipped appearing before it on Thursday, saying that she, as a woman, could be examined either through audio-visual means or at her home and cannot be summoned to its office as she was only a witness in the Delhi liquor policy scam. She sent a long note, apparently on the instructions of her father, defending her decision to skip deposing before the ED and how the law was in her favour.
Though Kavitha has managed to sidestep the immediate hurdle, March 20 will be very crucial. However, it is still not clear whether she would attend the questioning as she had said in her letter to the ED that the latter could continue its investigation after the Supreme Court gives its verdict on her petition seeking quashing of the summons. The apex court has consented to hear her case on March 24.
Probe expedited
Meanwhile, the ED appears to have decided to expedite its investigation into the role of the “South Group” in the scam and has summoned YSRCP MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy to appear before it on March 18. His son Magunta Raghu has already been arrested in the case. The agency appears to have decided to examine the MP in the presence of Arun Ramachandra Pillai, who is alleged to have acted as Kavitha’s proxy, and her former auditor Gorantla Buchi Babu.
The fast-paced developments are causing jitters among some leaders who are already under the ED’s lens. They fear that the outcome of Kavitha’s questioning on March 20, assuming that she would appear before the ED, would set off a domino effect and they might find themselves as sitting ducks.
They are worried about the fallout of any extreme step taken by the ED in regard to Kavitha and its impact on politics in Telangana. They are trying to figure out how the BJP would exploit the situation in its favour and what antidote the BRS should come up with to neutralise the campaign of calumny that the saffron party is likely to launch.
There is a lurking fear in the BRS leaders who are under ED’s scanner that in the event of KCR not being able to protect Kavitha from the ED, who would save them on the day of reckoning? This also may change the electoral mosaic in the next Assembly elections. Analysts say that KCR should instil confidence in the party cadres and leaders that no one would be able to touch them if they stand united.