Hyderabad: The sensational cash-for-votes scandal of 2015 is back in focus thanks to a sudden development on Monday, when TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao summoned senior Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), police and law department officials to Pragathi Bhavan to review the fate of the case, reportedly involving Telugu Desam chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
At the meeting, ACB director general J. Purn-achandra Rao reportedly submitted the forensic evidence to Mr KCR, who spoke to legal experts about taking the case forward.
Sources said the meeting was held to finalise the Telangana government’s stand in the Supreme Court as the case is expected to come up for hearing soon, with Jerusalem Mathaiah, one of the accused, writing to the Chief Justice in February saying he is ready to turn approver in the case.
The sudden development assumes significa-nce given the recent rift between Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and Mr Naidu, and the anticipated bond between Mr KCR and Mr Modi ahead of the 2019 elections.
The development came on a day when Mr Naidu held a meeting with finance officials of a few districts in Amaravati against the Centre diluting the rights of states on tax devolution in the name of the 15th Finance Commission.
Political circles are ab-uzz with the speculation that Mr KCR is aiming to kill two birds with one stone, and Mr Naidu and TD MLA Revanth Reddy, who joined the Congress recently and who was caught handing over '50 lakh to Elvis Stephens-on, will be cornered before 2019 elections.
Reddy has emerged as a star campaigner for the Congress, levelling allegations of graft against KCR and his family at all the public meetings he has been addressing.
KCR is expected to hold another round of meetings on this issue on Tuesday.
