Attempt to poach TRS MLAs had blessings of Amit Shah and Nadda, alleges Chandrasekhar Rao

Even the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taken on a couple of occasions during the interaction of the BJP agents with the TRS MLAs, the Telangana Chief Minister told a media conference.

Telangana Chief Minister  K. Chandrasekhar Rao addressing the media in Hyderabad on Thursday. | Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

The Telangana government on Thursday sent voluminous record of investigation into abortive attempt by some Bharatiya Janata Party agents to poach four Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) MLAs to the Chief Justice of India, all judges of Supreme Court, chief justices all High Courts, Chief Ministers of all States and presidents of parties to put them on notice about the evil designs of the culprits to topple elected governments.

Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told a media conference on Thursday night that the digital record, which would run into 70,000 to 80,000 pages was also sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation, Enforcement Directorate and the Central Vigilance Commission, Directors-General of Police of States, prominent news agencies and newspaper offices.

He said the government had decided to approach all democratic institutions because the episode reflected the grave threat to democracy from the BJP-led Central government. A special request was being made to the judiciary because it had always come to the rescue of democracy whenever it was in crisis.

The record was also sent as prosecution material to the Telangana High Court and the Supreme Court, where the case was pending. All evidence from the call data of the phones and laptops of the three accused since 2015 was annexed.

Mr. Rao said the attempt to poach the MLAs was an organised crime which had the blessings of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP general secretary in-charge of organisation B. L. Santosh and BJP president J. P. Nadda. Even the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taken on a couple of occasions during the interaction of the trio with the MLAs.

Mr. Rao played to the mediapersons a video recording of Narendra Modi warning West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting that 40 MLAs of Trinamool Congress were in touch with him. This showed the brazen attempts of BJP to pull down non-BJP governments. The party had done it in eight States and targeted Telangana, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, he alleged.

“Should I remain quiet if the Prime Minister says he will topple my government,” Mr. Rao asked. The BJP was prepared to spend thousands of crores of rupees to buy MLAs of other parties, he alleged.