Rival asks K Chandrasekhar Rao to stop campaigning

Hyderabad: Gajwel Congress candidate and former MLA Vanteru Pratap Reddy has thrown a challenge at caretaker Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao who is also contesting from the same constituency that both should not campaign there and “let us see who will win the people over.”

He said that in Gajwel, Mr Chandrasekhar Rao would even lose his deposit. He said that caretaker minister T. Harish Rao had camped at Gajwel for fear that the CM would be defeated.

Speaking to the media along with TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Tuesday, Mr Vanteru alleged that 24 false cases were booked against him. He claimed that the police were acting on behalf of Mr Chandrasekhar Rao’s family members. He said that Mr Harish Rao was spending crores of rupees in Gajwel and the police were not taking any action when he made complaints with evidence. 

He said that on Monday night, police came in four jeeps which had no nameplates and were not even in uniform. He said they came directly to his house and searched everything. According to him, they asked him how he had dared to contest against the CM. “Asking whether I brought money from Amaravati, they abused me in filthy language,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, TPCC president Uttam Kumar Reddy said the atmosphere in Gajwel was not conducive to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. He added that Mr Chandra-sekhar Rao was harassing Mr Vanteru and was lodging false cases against him. 

Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Mr Vanteru was getting threats to withdraw from contesting against the CM. He alleged that even the Election Commission was not taking action after he lodged complaints.