Hyderabad: BRS responds to Revanth Reddy’s comment on vote collusion

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi on Thursday strongly opposed Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s allegations that the BRS had helped the BJP win eight seats in Telangana in the recently held Lok Sabha elections. Strongly condemning the allegations, the BRS leaders questioned the logic behind the Chief Minister’s argument and said that if there was any substance to his allegations, the Congress would not have won more than two to three seats. Nine days later, Manne Krishanak has not been granted bail as the case is pending. The party also refuted his statement that the BJP got more votes in the assembly seats won by the Congress in the recently held assembly elections. BRS social media convenor Manne Krishanak refuted Revanth Reddy’s allegations with statistics, saying that in Mahabubabad, the BRS had got 2.61 lakh votes while the BJP got 1.08 lakh votes. He asked how an alliance with the BJP was possible in this scenario. Similarly, in Warangal, the Congress candidate won by a margin of 2.2 lakh votes against the BJP. “If BRS, which got 2.32 lakh votes, had actually joined hands with the BJP, the Congress would not have won,” he argued. He added that if there was a behind-the-scenes pact between the BRS and the BJP, as alleged by Revanth Reddy, the Congress would not have won more than three seats except in Nalgonda, Khammam and Mahabubabad. Citing another scenario, Krishanak said the Congress candidate defeated his BJP opponent in the Bhongir constituency by a majority of 2.2 lakh votes. The BRS got 2.54 lakh votes here, which again does not indicate any alliance with the BJP. In Nagarkurnool, the Congress won by 94,000 votes against the BJP, while the BRS got 3.19 lakh votes, just 40,000 votes less than the BJP. Krishanak argued that the Congress candidate would have lost if the BRS had not fought fiercely. The combined votes of the BJP and BRS in Nagarkurnool will be 6,92,001, easily more than the 4,65,072 votes polled by the Congress.

“Congress and BJP, both national parties, have created a narrative that Hyderabad does not need a regional party. But the country has seen from the results from Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal to Uttar Pradesh how important regional parties are. We will not succumb to the lies of the Congress and the BJP. We will represent the people, question the Modi guarantees as well as Rahul Gandhi’s guarantees,” he said, asking the chief minister to focus on governance instead of spreading lies. Meanwhile, former Telangana State SC and ST Commission chairman Erola Srinivas ridiculed Revanth Reddy’s allegations, saying it was not the BRS but the Congress that ensured the BJP’s victory in eight seats by fielding dummy candidates. He said the votes polled by the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections had actually increased in the chief minister’s Kodangal constituency compared to the assembly elections.

He said, “Congress had got more than 30,000 votes in Kodangal constituency in the assembly elections, which came down to 22,000 in the parliamentary elections. In Kondareddypalli, the native village of the chief minister, BJP got more votes than Congress. If Congress had got the same number of votes as it got in the assembly elections, it would have easily won the Mahbubnagar parliamentary seat.” BRS leader Deviprasad said people did not give good marks to the six-month rule of Congress and hence its votes decreased, due to which BJP won easily in some constituencies. He said, “If these elections were a referendum on Congress rule, then the party has failed.”