We have nothing against Andhras in Telangana: BRS

Hyderabad: The BRS, as well as its MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy, on Friday got into a damage control mode, declaring that they had no animosity towards people from Andhra who are settled in Hyderabad and in the rest of Telangana. The party claimed that the comments directed at one individual were being sought to be blown out of proportion for political gain by the Congress.

After the police thwarted Kaushik Reddy’s plans of visiting BRS defector Arekapudi Gandhi’s house along with the party’s Serilingampally leader Sambipur Raju, the BRS MLA said his comment that ‘Gandhi is from Andhra and what business he has here’, was in response to Gandhi asking him ‘why I am in Hyderabad instead of Karimnagar where I come from’.

The issue of people from the neighbouring state, who have made Hyderabad their home, is a touchy one for the BRS, especially since it won 18 Assembly seats in the Greater Hyderabad limits from constituencies where this section of the population makes for a significant chunk of voters.

Kaushik Reddy had been in the eye of a political storm of sorts over the past two days ever since he offered to send saris and bangles to BRS MLAs who defected to Congress.

During one of the heated but indirect exchanges with his former party colleague, Kaushik Reddy called Gandhi an “Andhrodu” which prompted charges that the BRS was back to stoking Telangana sentiments to get out of the hole that Kaushik Reddy dug for it with his saris and bangles comments.

A part of preventing protests from BRS leaders and cadre, the police placed under house arrest party legislators, including T. Harish Rao, Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Sabitha Indra Reddy and K.P. Vivekanand Goud resulting in arguments between the police and the leaders.

Meanwhile, Harish Rao charged Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy with charting a new controversy to divert attention from party defections and illegal Public Accounts Committee (PAC) appointments, both of which are constitutional violations. “Revanth is using personal conflicts and promoting attacks as diversionary tactics and trying to avoid addressing the real issues facing the people. Instead of helping flood victims, he is engaging in theatrics in Hyderabad,” Harish Rao said.

On the Andhra-Telangana issue, he said what happened was between the two MLAs. Comments aimed at each other by the two MLAs are “being twisted into some kind of an Andhra-Telangana battle now.”

He said that had the DGP ensured Gandhi’s arrest on Thursday before he and his followers attacked Kaushik Reddy’s house, there would have been no controversy. “But it was the police who provided security for Gandhi and watched as he and his followers ran amok,” he said.

Charging Revanth Reddy and the DGP as being “responsible for the attack,” Rao said “after causing the damage, they are now trying to cover it up.”

He also accused Revanth Reddy of “orchestrating political vendettas and causing the collapse of law and order in the state.”

The Chief Minister, he said, is “responsible for the breakdown of law and order in Telangana. It’s disgraceful that after contributing to this collapse, he now speaks about Hyderabad and Telangana’s brand image. The current situation in Telangana is worse than during the Emergency days.”