HYDERABAD: Claims by TRS leaders, who brandished photographs to show that BJP leaders knew Nanda Kumar — a businessman and one among the three arrested by police as a potential perpetrator of an alleged attempt to bribe TRS MLAs to defect — were quickly countered by BJP leaders, who came up with their own version of ‘you got shot too’ with images of the accused with TRS leaders, some of whom are close to party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
“They are circulating pictures of me with Nanda Kumar,” Union minister G. Kishan Reddy told reporters on Thursday.
“I have been an MLA thrice, and now I am an MP. I get invited to inaugurations, functions, award ceremonies and the like. Incidentally, the same venue where my picture was taken with Nanda Kumar, a picture of his was taken with TRS MLA D. Nagender,” Reddy said.
He ran through a series of images of TRS leaders with Nanda Kumar, including Rajya Sabha MP J. Santosh Kumar, MLA B. Harshvardhan Reddy, TSMSIDC chairman Errolla Srinivas, former Hyderabad mayor Bonthu Rammohan and tourism development corporation chairman U. Srinivas Gupta.
The BJP’s counter-attack came in the wake of the TRS circulating pictures of Nanda Kumar, Ramchandra Bharti, and Simhayaji Swamy, the other two accused, with BJP leaders within hours of the alleged bribery attempt coming to light Wednesday evening.
“This was an entirely scripted movie with Chandrashekar Rao donning all production roles. It is nothing but an attempt to distract people from Munugode by-election, and an attempt to confuse voters there,” Kishan Reddy said.
