BJP which has vowed to defeat the TRS in by-elections to Dubbak assembly seat, seems to have gone on the backfoot even before the commencement of nomination process.
On Wednesday, rumblings began in the BJP when its senior leader Thota Kamalakar Reddy questioned the propriety of issuing ticket to M Raghunandan Rao in Dubbak by-elections, as he had been facing serious allegations.
“Raghunandan is a rapist. There have been allegations of he being involved in rape of a woman. How can the party give him the ticket to contest the by-elections? It will badly affect the party prospects,” Reddy said.
Within hours of Reddy making the allegations, he was suspended from the party by Telangana state BJP president Bandi Sanjay. And it led to a commotion in the party and there are reports that many other party workers are expected to quit the BJP.
It may be recalled that a Hyderabadi woman lodged a complaint with the police in February this year that she was repeatedly raped by Raghunandan. The case is still under investigation.
Adding to this, the Hyderabad police have announced that an amount of Rs 40 lakh cash seized from some people at Akbarpet chowrastha near Shamirpet on the outskirts of Hyderabad belonged to Raghunandan.
Balanagar deputy commissioner of police Padmaja said questioning of the arrested revealed that they were taking money at the behest of Raghunandan.
“The text messages and call data revealed that the money belonged to Raghunandan meant for election expenditure,” she said.
This has further damaged the prospects of the BJP, though the party leaders have remained tight-lipped over the cash seizure.