Revanth plays mind game with BRS

Hyderabad: In an interesting political development, the Congress party has decided to contest only two Rajya Sabha seats and leave one for the opposition BRS. In a quick move the BRS has decided to send Vaddiraju Ravichandra to Rajya Sabha once again.

It may be recalled that speculations were rife that Congress would admit BRS MLAs who have been meeting Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy recently and would try and win all the three Rajya Sabha seats but it has put such plans on hold. Sources said that this was a kind of mind game played by the Congress to keep the BRS on the tenterhooks. The recent meetings Revanth had with BRS leaders, MPs, MLAs and local body representatives led to strong speculations that they would join the Congress party ahead of Rajya Sabha polls.

Some of them even indicated that they might switch over loyalties.

But Revanth clarified in the Assembly on Tuesday that they do not intend to poach anyone as BRS had done. BRS Peddapalli MP Venkatesh Neta was the only notable leader who joined the Congress in the presence of AICC leaders in New Delhi recently.

Meanwhile, Revanth Reddy has been making the issue of corruption in irrigation projects a major issue both inside and outside the Assembly. Now the Government would prepare reports on the alleged corruption in developmental programmes taken up by the BRS government.

The focus seems to be on the projects taken up by the MAUD department in the districts which include construction of thermal power generation projects, Mission Bhagiratha etc.

The government, it may be mentioned here, has ordered a probe into the Formula E in Hyderabad to expose “misuse of funds”. Former minister KT Rama Rao was the MAUD minister who was responsible for bringing Formula E to Hyderabad. Similarly, ministers have been asked to probe corruption in infrastructure projects taken up by the previous government.

State BC welfare and Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar ordered a vigilance probe in the Karimnagar smart city project alleging misuse of Rs 500 crore in the execution of the project.

Many ministers also instructed the Revenue authorities to submit a report on the encroachment of government lands by the BRS leaders.