Telangana Election 2018: Grand Alliance accuses KCR of colluding with BJP to escape from CBI

Telangana grand alliance partners, namely the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) has accused caretaker chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao for colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in order to get rid of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case against him in the ESI housing scam.

The grand alliance alleged that there is a nexus between Rao's Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the BJP, as when the Nationalist Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power, Rao's name went missing from the CBI charge sheet in the alleged scam.

TPCC chief Uttam Kumar Reddy said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who visited Telangana after four years, expressed displeasure to see a lack of development in the state in a dignified manner. He went to ask Rao why he did not pressurise Prime Minister Narendra Modi in getting things done to the state of Telangana like Tribal University.

"When Rao, commonly known as KCR was a Labour Minister in the Centre, a big scam took place in the then united Andhra Pradesh. A contract for ESIC constructions was given to V Surya Narayana, who was already an accused of corruption charges. National Building Construction Company was given the contract first, later it was changed to Narayana, with the pressure of the then Labour Ministry," Reddy explained.

"The CBI charge sheet is very clear. That case is still pending. However, the name of KCR was deleted from the charge sheet surprisingly. KCR had gone to Delhi many times in the name of medical tests. In fact, his Delhi visits were not for any medical treatment, but to get rid of his name from that scam. KCR was directly involved in that case; there are documentary statements in that regard," he noted.

He further said that this exposes a direct nexus between Prime Minister Modi and KCR, and asked the BJP and TRS to justify why the Prime Minister had to safeguard KCR.

Meanwhile, TDP Telangana President L Ramana said, "KCR has been speaking nonsense about Sonia Gandhi and Chandrababu Naidu. We had spoken of KCR's misdeeds when he was union labour minister, however, they were not heard as the Telangana agitation was at its peak. The TRS and KCR have looted public money through commissions, and are now spending that money in elections. People are saying that the TRS has already spent Rs 1,000 crores and another Rs 1,000 crores will be spent. Where did all this money come from?"

Continuing their tirade against KCR, the alliance said that in Sahara case, nearly Rs 7000 crores were swindled, a portion of which, they claimed, went to KCR.

"The Congress, TDP, TJS and the CPI are fighting against the misrule of TRS. In order to expose the matters of those cases, we called on this press meet," Ramana said.

Retaliating to the remarks of the grand alliance, Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh said the "unholy" alliance was formed to stop the BJP from gaining power in the state, and not for undertaking developmental activities.

"The alliance of Congress and TDP is an unholy alliance. These parties have formed a coalition, not for the development of the country, but to stop BJP and (Prime Minister) Modi," he had said at a rally in Warangal district.

The Legislative Assembly election in Telangana is scheduled to be held on December 7, while counting of votes will take place on December 11.

-ANI