Operation Lotus in Telangana thwarted, 3 held for allegedly luring TRS MLAs

HYDERABAD, Oct 27: Barely a week before the Munugode byelection, Cyberabad police on Wednesday night raided a farmhouse on the outskirts of the city and reportedly detained three persons for allegedly trying to lure four TRS legislators into the BJP.The MLAs in question — Guvvala Balaraju (Atchampet – SC), B Harshavardhan Reddy (Kollapur), Rega Kantarao (Pinapaka-ST) and Pilot Rohith Reddy (Tandur) — themselves tipped off the police, Cyberabad Commissioner of Police (CP) Stephen Raveendra revealed.

The detained have been identified as Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, a priest from Faridabad in Haryana, Simhayaji, pontiff of Srimanatha Raja Peetham in Tirupati and Nandakumar, owner of a restaurant, Deccan Pride in Hyderabad. “The trio offered Rs 100 crore each to the TRS MLAs besides contracts and positions of power,” top sources in the TRS told TNIE.

Briefing the media after the raid, the Police Commissioner too said they had received information that the trio were trying to entice the legislators with money, and contracts among other things to switch loyalties. “The information received was that they were holding consultations…. based on which we raided the farmhouse. We will take legal action against the accused,” he said.

The trio was caught red-handed at the farmhouse in Moinabad. The farmhouse reportedly belongs to MLA Pilot Rohith Reddy. Going by the developments, it seems the TRS has outwitted the BJP. Highly-placed sources confirmed to TNIE that even the State unit of BJP was unaware of the horse trading. “Delhi BJP leaders were overseeing this operation.. it was time-bound as they wanted the legislators to join the party at BJP chief JP Nadda’s public meeting in the State on October 31,” they said, adding that there was “tonnes of evidence” to prove BJP’s culpability.

The accused, Ramachandra Bharati, is said to be close to the RSS and was seen several times with top BJP leaders and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Nandakumar, on the other hand, is said to be close to Union Minister of State for Tourism G Kishan Reddy. TRS sources also revealed that the Delhi BJP leadership was in talks with multiple MLAs.

A senior pink party leader disclosed to TNIE that the Delhi BJP had been holding consultations with the four legislators for at least three weeks. It was learnt that the BJP leadership had first approached Rohith Reddy who informed TRS supremo and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. “This is a shameless display of how the BJP has been using its ill-gotten money to destabilise an elected government. This time, they have been caught red-handed,” the senior leader said.

Rohith Reddy, Harshavardhan Reddy and Rega Kantha Rao won on Congress tickets in the 2018 Assembly elections and later joined the TRS. The Chief Minister will hold a press conference on Thursday where he is expected to present more evidence. It is learnt that some conversations are a part of the evidence in which there were references to a few top BJP leaders.

Meanwhile, TRS MLA Balka Suman said, “The TRS MLAs busted the conspiracy hatched by the BJP and exposed the saffron party. The entire country witnessed the conspiracy of the BJP.”He advised BJP leaders to do some good work in Telangana and win the hearts of the people, instead of resorting to horse-trading. The four MLAs, however, said they would speak to the media on Thursday only after consulting the TRS chief.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will hold a press conference on Thursday where he is expected to present more evidence. It is  learnt that some conversations are a part of the evidence in which there were references to a few top BJP leaders. There was “tonnes of evidence” to prove BJP’s culpability in the matter, highly-placed sources told TNIE

The accused, Ramachandra Bharati, is said to be close to the RSS and was seen several times with top BJP leaders and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Nandakumar, on the other hand, is said to be close to Union Minister of State for Tourism G Kishan Reddy. TRS sources also revealed that the Delhi BJP leadership was in talks with multiple MLAs.

-The New Indian Express