Hyderabad: Supporters of minister T. Harish Rao suspect a larger conspiracy behind Mynampally Hanumantha Rao’s outburst, with internal discussions among them indicating doubts over how the party leadership dealt with the issue.
However, they were reluctant to discuss the issue or come on record with their statements.
Hanumantha Rao levelled serious charges against Harish Rao, for indulging in corruption and amassing huge wealth as a minister in the past nine years. He also accused the minister of obstructing the development of the Medak Assembly constituency.
The video of Hanumantha Rao’s comments went viral on social media platforms on Monday morning, but no top BRS leader, including ministers and MLAs, responded to them. No one came to the rescue of Harish Rao until party working president K.T. Rama Rao, who is away in the US, made a social media post on Monday evening supporting Harish and strongly condemning the derogatory remarks made by Hanumantha Rao.
Added to this, Hanumantha Rao’s name figuring in the list of 115 candidates released by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao at 3 pm on Monday came as a further shock to Harish Rao's supporters, who expected that the party boss would at least keep the announcement of Malkajgiri candidate pending, if not dropping Hanumantha Rao.
The Chief Minister, who held a press conference at Telangana state Bhavan on Monday at around 3 pm to announce the party's candidates for Assembly polls, too did not condemn Hanumantha Rao’s remarks. When media personnel raised the issue, Rao replied, “We have given him ticket from our side. Whether he wants to contest or not, is his choice.”
Harish Rao’s supporters suspect a conspiracy against their leader because the party leadership took the issue lightly, with no senior leader condemning the comments for hours.
