Ponguleti claims Opposition still tapping phones of Congress leaders

Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy has alleged continued phone tapping by the Opposition after an audio clip of his teleconference seeking votes for Congress candidates surfaced. He defended the call, saying employees had the right to vote and claimed the government would probe the issue

Khammam: In a rather unusual allegation, a Minister of the ruling party has claimed that the Opposition was tapping phones of ruling party leaders. Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy on Tuesday alleged that phones of many Congress leaders were “still being tapped”.

The Minister’s remarks, made during a media conference here, were seen as an attempt to play down his purported teleconference call to leaders of various employees’ unions in Khammam, in which he had allegedly asked them to garner votes for the Congress. An audio clipping of the call was released to the media earlier in the day by BRS district president Tata Madhusudhan.

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In the recording, the Minister was heard asking employees to take responsibility for the victory of Congress candidates in Edulapuram Municipality.

Replying to a query, Srinivas Reddy sought to justify the teleconference and maintained that the leak of the audio clip was the result of phone tapping. He said that as a Minister, he regularly held teleconferences with officials to review various issues. While confirming that he had asked employees to vote for the Congress, he questioned whether it was wrong to seek votes from them, stating that employees too had the right to vote like the general public.

The Minister also said the government was taking the phone tapping issue ‘very seriously’.

“There has been much talk about phone tapping by Central ministers and prominent persons in the State. The leaking of the teleconference call clipping has now proven it. The equipment is still with them (BRS). The government will carry out an inquiry to find out where the phone tapping equipment was installed and action will be taken against them,” Srinivas Reddy said.

Responding to a query on whether he posed a threat to Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, as stated by CPI senior leader K Narayana, the Minister said that everyone had his own political career and that he was not in the race for the Chief Minister’s post.

Referring to his remarks at Edulapuram on Monday, Srinivas Reddy asserted that if anyone resorted to forceful collection of funds or illegal activities for political gains, the law would take its own course. He maintained that the Congress continued to have an alliance with the CPI, with both parties now in a ‘friendly contest’ in the municipal elections.