Aziznagar Farmhouse Op: BJP’s version of Cash for Vote scam

Hyderabad: The Aziznagar farmhouse operation of the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be the party’s latest version of the 2015 cash-for-votes scam, in which the Telugu Desam Party had offered Rs.50 lakh to buy the vote of a nominated legislator in the election for the Telangana Legislative Council. Interestingly, the BJP was TDP’s ally then […]

Hyderabad: The Aziznagar farmhouse operation of the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be the party’s latest version of the 2015 cash-for-votes scam, in which the Telugu Desam Party had offered Rs.50 lakh to buy the vote of a nominated legislator in the election for the Telangana Legislative Council. Interestingly, the BJP was TDP’s ally then and the combine did not have enough votes, which was why the vote shopping was attempted. The main accused in the 2015 scandal, A Revanth Reddy later jumped from the TDP to the Congress, but is yet to completely wash his hands off the attempted vote purchase.

The scandal started off when TDP leaders were caught in a video footage, offering bribes to nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson for his vote in Telangana Legislative Council election. Revanth Reddy was arrested by the Telangana Police when he was offering Rs.50 lakh to Stephenson. A phone conversation, allegedly with the voice of TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, with Stephenson, also hit the air at the same time.

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After the notification for six upper house seats was released, there were five candidates from the TRS, one from Congress and one from TDP in the fray. The TDP and ally BJP together did not have enough votes to win the contest and began looking to buy votes. It was then that Revanth Reddy was caught on video, with the conversation infamously mentioning his ‘Boss’. Before this, one Mattaiah had offered cash to Stephenson, who in turn alerted the ACB, who waited for the transaction, and when Revanth Reddy met Stephenson on May 31, arrested him.