A day after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi accused them of collusion with each other; he came under a combined counterattack from the BJP, BRS and AIMIM BRS.

Incensed by charges of corruption and family rule leveled by the Congress leader against Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, BRS working president KT Rama Rao targeted the Congress leader both online (social media) and offline. Addressing a public meeting, he predicted that his (Rahul’s) bus yatra was doomed to fail.

Rama Rao called it ironic that the Gandhi family, the dynasty that has been running a national party right from Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, talks of family politics.”

“Rahul Gandhi is not a leader, but a reader,” he pointed out implying the Congress MP merely reads out the speeches written by local leaders for him.

He also criticised the Congress’s Central leadership for appointing A Revanth Reddy as the PCC chief. “Your party is headed by a chor (thief) in Telangana. Once caught red-handed with cash, he is now selling party tickets,” alleged the BRS leader

He even advised the Congress leader to ask Komatireddy Venkat Reddy about his antecedents in privacy for confirmation. He further claimed that Reddy was a “criminal” and a “fraud”, worse than “Dawood Ibrahim and Charles Sobhraj put together”.

In a counter to Gandhi’s remark that a vote to the BRS means a vote to BJP, KT Rama Rao said, “We are not B-team of BJP. Congress is C-team – the chor team of the country.”

BRS MLC Kalvakuntla Kavitha slammed Priyanka Gandhi for accusing her party of running a family rule in the state. “This is the funniest thing I have ever heard during the election campaign. They (Gandhi family) should not throw stones at others while living in glasshouses,” she said.

Apart from the Kalvakuntla siblings, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi sharply reacted to Rahul Gandhi’s B-team jab. In a social media post, he wrote, “As was expected, Rahul Baba’s “B-team” rona (rant) has begun. Why did he gift his Amethi seat to the BJP? And why is BJP so weak in Telangana if it has B-teams here? Why did Baba have to go all the way to Wayanad if not for a safe bet? My Royal Enfield has more seats than what the BJP-Congress-RSS combine will have in the Telangana Assembly.”

The reference to the mobike brand by Owaisi alludes to Rahul’s bike ride traversing the lanes and bylanes of Hyderabad, even while he went to meet the state chief minister at Pragathi Bhavan.

How could the BJP lag behind in countering Rahul Gandhi’s for his intemperate insinuations about the party? Party’s state president G Kishan Reddy took to X to remind him that he was among the Opposition leaders who, along with KT Rama Rao, had accompanied Yashwant Sinha when he filed his nomination for presidential election and joined hands with his party to bring a no-confidence motion against the Modi government.

“Both the Congress and the BRS have the same DNA – corruption, family rule, launching and re-launching their respective princes,” said Kishan Reddy.