HYDERABAD: BJP leaders responded sharply to the allegations of poaching and bribery claims of TRS leaders by saying, "in God we trust," while also mocking at Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, saying that he and his partymen believed in gold, perhaps referring to the gold being allegedly distributed to each voter’s family in Munugode.
Rejecting the charge that the BJP was trying to poach TRS MLAs, the BJP leaders invoked divine intervention and challenged Chandrasekhar Rao, if he was a firm believer in God, to swear at the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple in Yadadri that neither he nor the TRS had a role in levelling the bribery charges.
Taking the lead in calling on the Chief Minister to place his faith in God if he has not done anything wrong, state BJP president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Thursday declared that he will be “waiting for KCR at the temple from 9 a.m. to 10 am on Friday. KCR, if you have no connection with this entire episode, then you should come to the temple, and take an oath that you or your party has no role in scripting the entire drama. I too will take an oath before the deity declaring that I or the BJP had nothing to do with the episode.”
Sanjay’s challenge to the Chief Minister at a press meet in Munugode found support from Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, who at a separate press conference in Hyderabad said he fully supported the state BJP president’s call to the Chief Minister. “It is Chandrashekar Rao who led the Yadadri temple revival and if the CM has nothing to hide, then he should go to the temple and take the oath,” he remarked.
The state BJP president's call followed a similar demand from BJP vice-president D.K. Aruna late Wednesday night, shortly after news of the alleged poaching attempt began to surface. “If KCR is clean and truly believes in God, he should swear an oath at the Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple. If he doesn’t, everyone will know what the truth is,” she said.
