TRS MLA poaching: Telangana probe team summons BJP leader B L Santosh

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], November 19 (ANI): BJP National General Secretary BL Santosh has been summoned by Telangana Police in connection with the alleged attempts of the BJP to poach MLAs from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).
Santosh has been summoned by the Telangana government-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to investigate alleged attempts by BJP to poach TRS legislators. The SIT led by the Hyderabad Police Commissioner C V Anand and supervised by a judge reports to the High Court. The court also ordered that all information regarding the probe would only be submitted to the judge in a sealed envelope by November 29.
The Cyberabad Police had on October 26 arrested three persons- Ramachandra Bharati alias Satish Sharma, Nanda Kumar and Simhayaji Swamy at a farmhouse in Ranga Reddy on charges that they attempted to poach some TRS MLAs to the BJP.
Earlier on November 6, Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Etela Rajender accused the KCR government of trying to "finish the Opposition" by "purchasing" their legislators.
Rajender was reacting to the remarks made by Chief Minister KCR over the alleged poaching attempts by the BJP, in which he alleged that the BJP had "destroyed" the country and also "killed" the democracy in the country.
Slamming KCR over his remarks, the BJP MLA said that TRS "killed" democracy by buying the MLAs from other parties despite having an absolute majority since 2018.
"It was CM KCR who tried to finish the opposition parties. Nearly 25 MLAs were purchased from BSP, YSRCP, TDP and Congress in 2014. After 2018, he got an absolute majority with 90 out of 119 seats, yet took 12 MLAs from the Congress party and killed the democracy," he told ANI on Saturday.
He alleged that the TRS is luring the MLAs of other parties by "frightening" them and offering them money.
"By frightening the MLAs and promising some contracts in the constituency and giving money to MLAs, they are being lured into his party. In the same way, 12 MLAs were bought. KCR finished the democracy. Whatever KCR said is suitable to him and not to others," Rajender added.
Earlier on November 3, KCR had released a video of the BJP allegedly trying to poach his party MLAs. The Chief Minister was reacting to the October 26 incident.
KCR accused BJP of destroying all systems in the country. "There are troubling situations in the country. Democracy is being killed in the country. I speak with great pain. I can't believe that such evil can exist. Unemployment has increased. The value of the rupee has fallen. The BJP has destroyed the country in all fields," KCR had said while speaking to the media.
He said that in the Munugode by-elections they saw incidents that have never been seen before. "Elections come and go, but BJP is doing things that no one expected with its conspiracies to win every election," he said.
In that regard, KCR said that a video containing elements of the conspiracy of what the BJP has done to buy the MLAs of his party has been released.
He said that the videos are being sent to Supreme Court judges as well as High Court judges in all states and Chief Ministers of other states.
He appealed to everyone to save democracy stating that this is the culmination of BJP's anarchy.
Speaking about the broker, KCR said, "Ramachandra Bharati, a broker met Tandoor MLA Rohit Reddy. Then Reddy complained to us and we took it to the home ministry. One cannot lose any more governments to the BJP."
KCR said "There is an hour-long video on buying MLAs. We are sending videos to all news, agencies and CMs in the country. The judges of the country, including the Supreme Court. Democracy should be protected in this country. I will send the video to all the judges in the country. I will also send the video to all central investigating agencies.
Meanwhile, the BJP termed KCR as an "actor" in the "political field" after he released a video on Thursday of the BJP allegedly trying to poach his party's MLAs.
"Generally people will display their skills by acting and playing various roles in the cinema field like NTR, Dilip Kumar, Sanjay Dutt and others but our state CM KCR is capable of acting in the political field with his lies and dialogues and mesmerising political workers with his lies", BJP spokesperson NV Subhash said while reacting to CM's media conference. (ANI)