The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government detained state BJP President B Sanjay and arrested key BJP leader and MLA, Raja Singh on Tuesday after facing a two-pronged attack by the saffron party. On Sunday, top BJP leader and home minister Amit Shah addressed a public meeting in the Munugode constituency, which is all set to go for a bypoll. He targeted ruling TRS party President and chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao and his family alleging large-scale corruption and unethical family rule. Shah predicted the downfall of the regional party by the next elections.
Within 24 hours after he left the state, BJP MP from West Delhi, Parvesh Verma alleged that TRS MLC K Kavitha, who is also the daughter of KCR was involved in the liquor policy scam which rocked the Delhi government. He said that KCR’s family members had attended the meetings related to the policy formulation. Following this development, Congress stepped up and joined BJP in questioning the role of Kavitha on this issue. Refuting the allegations, Kavitha threatened to file a defamation suit against the BJP leaders for dragging her name. On Monday evening, BJP workers protested outside Kavitha’s house leading to a direct confrontation with TRS workers who also assembled at the leader’s house as a defensive measure. To express solidarity with the BJP workers who were arrested by the police outside Kavitha’s residence, BJP President B Sanjay called party workers to intensify strikes across the state which led to him getting detained by the police on Tuesday morning.
On the parallel front, communal trouble started brewing after stand-up comic Munawar Faruqui performed in Hyderabad with the support of the state government. The BJP vehemently opposed the show and its leaders threatened to disrupt the performance. BJP MLA Raja Singh was at the forefront of demanding the scrapping of the show, without any success as he was taken into preventive custody on Saturday, hours before the scheduled event. The event has taken a political turn and transformed into a showdown between TRS and BJP. Reacting to allowing the show, Raja Singh uploaded a video on Youtube in which he made derogatory remarks against a particular community. On Monday evening and Tuesday morning, protests erupted against his statements as agitators demanded his arrest. The police responded to the complaints received in this regard and arrested Raja Singh under multiple sections on Tuesday morning. Earlier, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi also condemned the statements of the BJP MLA.
Raja Singh is the only MLA, representing Goshamahal, to have won on a BJP ticket in the Assembly elections held in 2018. He had courted controversy in the past with his inflammatory and provocative speeches.
The BJP is bracing up to challenge TRS and the Congress at Munugode, where the sitting MLA, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy quit Congress to join the BJP, which sees this as an opportunity to further expand its sphere of influence in the state.
