BRS leaders and workers have planned to travel to Hyderabad to show their support for Siddipet MLA and former minister T Harish Rao, along with other party leaders, following their arrest on Thursday. The arrests are linked to a conflict involving Huzurabad MLA Padi Koushik Reddy and Serilingampalli MLA Arekapudi Gandhi.
BRS leaders including Harish Rao were arrested and driven around in separate police buses for about three hours and kept in a police station for about two hours before being released.
The biased approach of the police, in fact, was visible right from morning, when they placed Kaushik Reddy under house arrest to prevent him from reaching Serilingampally MLA Arekapudi Gandhi's residence
Tensions rose when Kaushik Reddy and Gandhi engaged in a heated exchange, with Reddy promising to visit Gandhi and present him with a BRS scarf, as well as hoist a BRS flag at Gandhi's Hyderabad residence on Thursday. In response, the police placed Kaushik Reddy under house arrest and increased security at Gandhi's residence.
Former Legislative Affairs Minister and senior BRS MLA Vemula Prashanth Reddy said the Congress government was using underhand tactics to undermine the Opposition’s role in scrutinising the State finances.
Following BRS opposing Gandhi's appointment as chairman of the Assembly PAC, a post that is usually given to an Opposition member, the MLA has now taken a ‘U’ turn and is claiming that he is still in the Opposition.
BJP Legislative Party leader Maheshwar Reddy said that it had been a tradition for long to give the post of PAC chairman to the Opposition party and by breaking the tradition the Congress had lost the trust of the people.
