HYDERABAD: TRS working president and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao described the party’s victory in Munugode bypoll as a 'slap on the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah' and a 'victory for democracy'.
Speaking to the media here on Sunday, Rao said that the people of Munugode have chosen 'self-respect' over the 'money politics' of BJP and its candidate K. Rajgopal Reddy.
"By giving a comfortable majority to the TRS, the people of Munugode have shown that development and self-respect matter to them more than money. Though this bypoll appears to be a fight between TRS and BJP's Rajgopal, it was actually a fight between TRS on the one side and Modi and Shah on the other. They were behind Rajgopal who forced the unnecessary with an arrogance that they can win this election by luring voters with money, liquor and other freebies," Rama Rao remarked.
He thanked voters of undivided Nalgonda district for electing TRS candidates in three bypolls that were held in the district since 2018 Assembly polls in Huzurnagar, Nagarjunasagar and now Munugode. "With the support of voters, TRS has achieved the rare feat of bagging all the 12 Assembly seats in the district."
He thanked the party cadre as well as the Left leadership for their support. He came down heavily against the BJP for turning the byelection into a matter of money. He reminded that major cash seizures by the election authorities were done from the close aides of BJP Telangana leaders, while G. Vivek had officially and also through the hawala network, pumped in more than Rs 75 crore.
Even though the TRS complained to the EC about Rajgopal Reddy’s family-owned company Sushi Infra transferring Rs 5.22 crore directly into the bank accounts of some local BJP leaders and individuals in Munugode constituency, the EC did not act as it was under pressure from BJP, he alleged.
"If the TRS (BRS) was distributing cash and liquor, wouldn’t 15 CRPF companies and 40 IT teams (deployed by the Centre) get a whiff of it? Why were only BJP associates caught with huge cash?" he asked.
Pointing out that the BJP succeeded to some extent only in denting the TRS majority with all its tricks, he said the BJP was unable to digest defeat and was making baseless allegations.
"We too can blame the EC for allowing the ‘road roller’ and other symbols similar to our ‘Car’ symbol as they polled nearly 6,000 votes, thereby reducing our majority,” he added.
On continuing the alliance with Left parties, he said that would be decided by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the top leaders of the Left parties soon. He added that the action plan of BRS would be decided after the EC accords approval to renaming the TRS as the BRS.
