Union Minister for Tourism and Culture G. Kishan Reddy on Thursday alleged that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) scripted poaching drama to malign BJP, and demanded that the police reveal details like the amount of cash seized from three persons arrested in the case.
Dismissing the allegations that BJP tried to lure four TRS MLAs with huge sums of money, important positions and contracts, he said BJP would have gained nothing by making four MLAs to defect to the party.
He wondered why the police were not revealing how much money was seized and where it came from.
Addressing a news conference, the minister denied any links with the accused in the case.
Cyberabad Police on Wednesday arrested three persons from a farmhouse at Moinabad near Hyderabad when they were allegedly trying to lure four TRS MLAs to make them defect to BJP.
On a complaint by one of the MLAs, Pilot Rohit Reddy, police registered a case against Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma of Delhi, Nanda Kumar of Hyderabad and Simhayaji Swamy of Tirupati.
TRS leaders have alleged that Nanda Kumar is close to Kishan Reddy.
The Union Minister said the police should reveal details if the money belonged to TRS MLAs or it came from Chief Minister KCR's farmhouse.
He said if KCR was sincere, he should order a probe into the case by sitting judge of the Supreme Court or by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Launching a counter attack on TRS, the BJP ladder said it was TRS which promoted defections. "Has TRS not lured many MLAs and MPs to join its ranks. How much the party paid to 12 MLAs of Congress who joined TRS in the past," he asked.
He alleged that TRS was resorting to the drama due to fear of losing Munugode by-election. He claimed that BJP enjoyed people's support and that TRS will not win the November 3 by-election even if it spends thousands of crores.
He alleged that TRS leader KTR telephoned a BJP leader of Munugode to lure him to join TRS.
Kishan Reddy said the TRS played same tactics in Dubbak by-election but BJP emerged victorious. He was confident that the same result will be repeated in Munugode.