Telangana IT Minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao said he turned down a request from Nara Lokesh, TDP general secretary and son of N Chandrababu Naidu, for permission to conduct rallies in the Hyderabad IT Hub in support of his jailed father.

According to KT Rama Rao, Lokesh approached him after police began a crackdown on rallies and protests organised by the TDP in the IT corridor of Hyderabad. Stating that protests were not allowed in the IT hub even during the Telangana movement, he asserted that the IT industry should not be disturbed.

“The arrest of Chandrababu Naidu is primarily a political move. It is a battle of wits between two rival political parties in the state which has nothing to do with Telangana and its people. Hence, our stand is clear, what happens in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh is of no consequence here. If someone wants a nautanki (spectacle) here, I only have to say that we don’t want to be part of nautanki. It would be like ‘begana shadi mein Abdullah diwana’ (Abdullah is thrilled over someone else’s marriage.),” said Rao.

He wondered why rallies should be taken out in Hyderabad instead of Rajahmundry, Amaravati, Vijayawada, or Kurnool. “I am friends with Lokesh, I am friends with Jagan and I am friends with Pawan Kalyan,” said Rao while firmly refusing to allow protests in Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh CID filed a memo in the Anti Corruption Bureau court adding Nara Lokesh as accused number 14 in the Inner Ring Road scam. The CID’s move came at a time when he was all set to resume his walkathon Yuvagalam, which was held up after his father was arrested in the multi-crore Skill Development scam.

The CID had earlier filed a prisoner-in-transit warrant against Chandrababu Naidu in the same case in the ACB court seeking his custody for interrogation. Lokesh slammed Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy pointing out that the Inner Ring Road project didn’t even come under his department. “When we are all set to resume Yuvagalam I am being included as accused number 14 in the Ring Road case which was not even related to my department… Even if you falsely accuse and illegally arrest you cannot stop Yuvagalam,” he wrote on Micro blogging site X.

On the other hand, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi advised his supporters in Andhra Pradesh to support YSRCP in the upcoming elections.