Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) alleged that BJP tried to bribe four of their MLAs to defect in a covert operation as a part of its Operation Lotus after which police raided a farmhouse in the Aziznagar area of Moinabad following a tip-off from the MLAs, leading to the arrest of three people with a huge amount of unaccounted cash.
The four TRS MLAs are Pilot Rohit Reddy, Rega Kantha Rao, Guvvula Balaraju and Beeram Harshvardhan. According to Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra, alerted by the TRS MLAs the police reached the farmhouse and arrested Nanda Kumar, Swami Ramachandra Bharati who hails from Delhi and is associated with a Faridabad temple and Simhayajulu from Tirupati along with the cash.
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Nanda Kumar is said to be close to a senior BJP leader from the state. The MLAs were apparently offered posts, contracts and Rs100 crore cash. “The MLAs were offered cash, contracts, posts in return. The searches were carried out based on information given by the TRS MLAs,” said Cyberabad police commissioner. The farm house belongs to the TRS MLA Rohit Reddy.
TRS leaders have alleged that BJP which has toppled several governments in states wanted to do something akin to what Eknath Shinde did to Uddhav Thackeray led MVA government in Maharashtra.
According to them the BJP wants to topple the TRS government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao. However, BJP leaders have dismissed the entire thing as a political drama. The TRS has warned BJP that their MLAs were not on sale.
After a former TRS MP joined the BJP ahead of Munugode bypoll the TRS got three BJP leaders including Sravan Dasoju to jump ship and join the party. The TRS has absolute majority in the Legislative Assembly and along with AIMIM MLAs the defection of four MLAs would not have threatened the government in any way.