Nod for prosecution in Formula E case, fallout of a Cong-BJP conspiracy: BRS

Senior BRS leaders have accused the Congress and BJP of colluding to malign KT Rama Rao and weaken the party before local body elections. They defended the Hyderabad E-Prix as a legitimate event that boosted investments and visibility, dismissing allegations of irregularities.

Hyderabad: Calling the Governor’s sanction for prosecution against BRS working president KT Rama Rao an act of ‘politically motivated vendetta’, senior BRS leaders including Parliamentary Party leader K. Suresh Reddy, MP Vaddiraju Ravichandra, former Minister Gangula Kamalakar and others on Thursday alleged a conspiracy orchestrated jointly by the Congress and BJP to tarnish the image of the BRS leader and to debilitate the party ahead of the local body polls.

Addressing a news conference at Telangana Bhavan, the BRS leaders said the Hyderabad E-Prix brought Rs.700 crore in investments and global visibility to the city.

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“Central ministers attended the event. The same race has been held in many States. There were no cash transactions or irregularities,” they asserted, calling the case bogus.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy was doing ‘diversion politics’ because he had no answers for farmer suicides that cross the 700 mark in two years, failure in implementing electoral promises and lack of Central funds for Telangana, they said, adding that the Congress and BJP had joined hands to crush regional forces.

“Congress has become the B-team of BJP. In Bihar, they finished RJD, in Delhi they crushed AAP, now they want to bury BRS,” they said, citing the Jubilee Hills by-election where, despite multiple complaints, the Election Commission turned a blind eye.

Hailing Rama Rao’s vision for taking Hyderabad’s IT sector to new heights after the BRS came to power, they said Hyderabad had emerged as a global IT destination during the BRS regime. Attempts were being made to destroy his image as a youth icon of the country, they said, pointing out that the BRS working president had already appeared before the ACB three times and expressed readiness for a lie-detector test.

Questioning why the Congress government, which targeted the Formula E-race, had organised beauty pageants after coming to power, they said if cases had to be filed, it should first be against Congress leaders.

The party warned that the Formula E case would boomerang as a self-goal for the Congress.