BRS working president KT Rama Rao on Saturday accused the Karnataka Congress of forcing Bengaluru builders to shell out commissions to fund Telangana assembly elections.

Taking to the micro blogging site X, Rao wrote: “Apparently Karnataka’s newly elected Congress Government has started levying a ‘political election tax’ of ₹ 500 per square foot to Bengaluru builders to fund Telangana Congress.”

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He then went on to say: “Old habits die hard. The grand old party and its rich legacy of scams is legendary and that’s why it’s been rechristened ‘Scamgress’. No matter how much money they pump, people of Telangana can not be fooled.”

As the political battle between the BRS and the Congress heated up ahead of the elections the ruling party has been citing the example of Karnataka, insisting that the Congress government failed to fulfill its poll promises.

The Congress in Telangana adopted the Karnataka model of declaring poll guarantees coming up with six such promises and calling them game changers.

The BRS which taunts the state units of Congress and BJP as “slaves of Delhi” has now accused the state leaders of Congress of approaching the High Command via Karnataka in apparent dig at the growing role of DK Shivakumar the KPCC chief in the affairs of the Telangana unit of the party.

Following Rao’s tweet Telangana Congress president A Revanth Reddy hit back calling his family “Kalvakuntla Scamily” alleging that the party leaders were charging 30 per cent commission from beneficiaries of Dalit Bandhu scheme.

“The father catches cold after watching the six guarantees of Congress and the son is talking like he has lost his mind,” wrote Reddy in his rebuttal post in Telugu.

He further asked: “How many government plots have been sold in Telangana how many acres have been tied up to your real estate mafia, how many people are running the Hyderabad mafia empire with your benaami builders?”

Another Congress MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy too slammed the BRS leader for his comment.

Meanwhile, the BRS has put up posters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city, criticising him for insulting Telangana formation ahead of his visit to the state.