Following the defection of seven of their MLAs, the BRS today slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of hypocrisy and doublespeak while upholding the Constitution when his own party was engineering defections in Telangana.

Taking a dig at Gandhi, BRS working president KT Rama Rao said he was putting up an Oscar worthy performance of pretending that he was protecting the Constitution when his own party was flouting it with impunity.

An angry KT Rama Rao, lashed out at the Leader of the Opposition (in the Lok Sabha) in New Delhi saying, “Rahulji you cannot run with hares and hunt with hounds. This kind of double standards, double speak and hypocrisy of which Congress is the epitome, cannot continue. We will expose you not only in Telangana but also in Delhi.”

The BRS has so far lost seven MLAs, an equal number of MLCs and one Rajya Sabha MP to the Congress. The regional party has criticised the Congress for pledging in its manifesto to amend the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution so that any defection will lead to automatic disqualification but was bent upon engineering defection in Telangana.

“We will raise this issue in the Rajya Sabha where we have four MPs. We will ask the Congress how you can speak a different language (adopt a different policy) in different regions… We will also move the Supreme Court if the Speaker does not take a decision soon in Telangana,” threatened KT Rama Rao who is more popularly referred to as KTR.

The BRS has already sought the disqualification of the rebel MLAs but the Speaker has so far not taken up the issue. A frustrated BRS has also filed petitions in the High Court.

KTR said it was an open and shut case citing the instance of Danam Nagender who was elected on a BRS ticket in December last year and then without turning in his resignation he had fought on a Congress ticket in the Lok Sabha from Secunderambad seat. Rao added that they will also approach the Speaker of Lok Sabha as well as President Droupadi Murmu. He claimed that during its tenure, the BRS had allowed a merger by 12 MLAs of the Congress which was granted in the Constitution.

Rao and his cousin and fellow BRS leader T Harish Rao were in Delhi for the past few days consulting legal experts and also met his sister K Kavitha who is currently incarcerated over the Delhi Liquor scam.