TRS alleges Congress-BJP collusion in Lok Sabha polls

HYDERABAD: The TRS on Tuesday alleged that the Congress backed BJP candidates in Telangana for the Lok Sabha polls in a bid to put up a strong fight against the pink party’s contestants and claimed it had gathered “specific information” about where the tacit deals had been forged.
In Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency from where Kavitha Kalvakuntla was seeking re-election, supporters of Congress candidate Madhu Yashki reportedly threw in their lot with BJP candidate Dharmapuri Aravind. The BJP candidate campaigned vigorously for his election. The TRS which got wind of the support the BJP candidate was getting from Congress circles, took precautions and drafted its strategies accordingly with chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself getting involved in the situation.

In Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency from where B Vinod Kumar is seeking a re-election, former Congress MP Ponnam Prabhakar was also in the fray to stage a comeback. The BJP fielded Bandi Sanjay Kumar who had also fought and lost the assembly elections from Karimnagar seat. According to TRS , the party observed that Congress cadres were encouraged to vote for the BJP candidate. “Whatever tricks the Congress and the BJP were up to will not pay off for them. The TRS will win and this will be reflected when the results are out on May 23,” TRS senior leader B Vinod Kumar told TOI.
Some observations have also been submitted to the party high command K Chandrasekhar Rao about Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency. The TRS fielded Manne Srinivas Reddy and the BJP fielded D K Aruna. The Congress candidate was Ch Vamshichand Reddy. A former Congress minister, Aruna had switched over to the BJP before the elections and was given a ticket. In this constituency too, there reportedly was an understanding between the BJP and the Congress, with Congress cadres encouraged to support the BJP candidate. Mahbubangar is an important seat for the TRS to retain as its sitting candidate A P Jitender Reddy was denied renomination. He quit the TRS and joined the BJP, though he did not contest the polls.
There are 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. The TRS fielded candidates in all constituencies. The TRS and MIM have declared themselves to be ‘friendly parties’, so fielding a TRS candidate was more on account of strategY.
Congress candidate from Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency Ponnam Prabhakar rubbished the talk that the Congress had supported the BJP in the constituency. “The Congress is in a comfortable position to win and in fact the TRS cadres themselves supported the BJP,” he alleged. Prabhakar, however, said he was aware of some talk that in Vemulawada some Congress supporters had sided with the BJP. But he had an explanation for that. He pointed out that Adi Srinivas who contested from Vemulawada assembly constituency under Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in the 2014 elections as a BJP candidate and lost, and subsequently joined the Congress in 2018 and contested as Congress candidate in the December 2018 elections . “If some of Adi Srinivas’s supporters individually supported the BJP, that is a different matter but it is false to say that the Congress supported the BJP,” Ponnam Prabhakar said.
BJP state president K Laxman said it was a fact that many Congress and also TRS partymen supported BJP. “This is because of a clear Modi wave in the country. But there was no tacit understanding between BJP and Congress. The BJP did not support the Congress but BJP candidates did get support from Congress and TRS supporters,” Laxman said.