MLAs' bribing scandal: Bandi Sanjay denies BJP role, demands CCTV footage

HYDERABAD: While strongly condemning the "Operation Farmhouse" by the Cyberabad Police, BJP state President and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar claimed on Wednesday night that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) was solely to blame for the drama surrounding the alleged bribing scandal of his party's MLAs.

In a hurriedly convened press meet after the Cyberabad Police detained four persons as part of their operation at a farm house in Moinabad, Bandi Sanjay alleged that the TRS had hatched this conspiracy against the BJP as they were destined to lose the Munugode Assembly by-election.

The BJP state chief challenged KCR to release the CCTV footage of the last one week from the farmhouse, Deccan Kitchen Hotel and Pragati Bhavan to get the facts right. He also asked the Chief Minister if he was ready to swear at the Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Yadadri with regard to this matter. He said that facts would be revealed if an investigation was conducted with a sitting judge. He claimed that the BJP had no involvement in the scandal.

Kishan Reddy denies role, questions police operation

Stung by the Cyberabad crackdown and accused of his involvement in the alleged attempt of bribing four TRS MLAs to join their party, senior Telangana BJP leader and Union Minister Kishan Reddy vehemently denied all the allegations. While terming the police operation as a staged act by the TRS leadership, he rubbished the accusations that the BJP was behind it and sought to absolve himself from the scandal.

Speaking to a vernacular television channel after the sensational exposé, Kishan Reddy appeared at his wits end to distance himself and his party from the entire episode. Reports also claimed that Nandu, one of the accused, was a close associate of Kishan Reddy and that the Union Minister had indeed masterminded the 'Operation Akarsh' to engineer defections from TRS ahead of the crucial by-election to the Munugode Assembly constituency.

Coming under the cloud, Kishan Reddy claimed that the alleged bribing episode was an act staged by the TRS to tarnish the image of the BJP and also ruin his personal reputation just for the sake of some mileage in Munugode. He denied having any close association with Nandu while maintaining that, being a sitting MP from Secunderabad and as a former MLA from Amberpet, he had acquaintance with thousands in the twin cities.

Stating that the BJP would be least interested to look to benefit from such unethical activities by spending hundreds of crores of rupees with just over an year left for the Assembly elections, he also sought to question the role played by the police in the episode. "How can the police go to the farmhouse? Why should they involve themselves, even if a deal of that sort was presumed to be taking place with the MLAs? It is the right of the legislators if they wish to switch their political loyalties. It is not uncommon to see people's representatives deciding not to sail with a particular party for the sake of another political outfit. It is sad to see even the police playing their part in the staged act," he said.