State Congress chief Revanth Reddy was arrested from the Telangana Martyrs Memorial yesterday
Hyderabad:
Weeks before Telangana votes, the Congress has attacked Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, alleging that he does not have the guts to contest elections without using cash or alcohol to lure voters.
Dramatic scenes played out at the Telangana Martyrs Memorial yesterday when state Congress president Revanth Reddy was arrested after challenging the chief minister to come to the memorial and take a vow with him that their parties will not will use cash or liquor at the polls.
Mr Reddy threw the challenge at KCR, also the head of the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi, after his leaders alleged that the Congress was distributing cash, liquor and other gifts to voters.
The state Congress chief and his supporters reached the monument at 12 noon yesterday. When he tried to enter, the police took him into preventive custody. He was released shortly afterwards.
In a tweet, Mr Reddy said KCR does not have the guts to seek votes without distributing money or liquor.
Earlier, BRS working president and KCR’s son KT Rama Rao and the Chief Minister’s nephew T Harish Rao had alleged that the Karnataka Congress sponsored the party’s Telangana campaign and sent Rs 1,500 crore to ensure a victory in Telangana to ensure.
The accusations and counter-accusations come amid massive seizures of unaccounted cash and liquor ahead of the elections. In just eight days since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect, a recovery worth Rs 130 crores has been made. Compare this to the total recovery of Rs 103 crores in the run-up to the 2018 polls.
Over Rs 71 crore in cash, liquor worth Rs 7.75 crore, ganja worth Rs 4.58 crore, jewelery worth over Rs 40 crore and other free gifts like laptops, stoves, sarees, sewing machines worth Rs 6.29 crore have been recovered so far, the Election Commission has said.
