Telangana Congress president, A. Revanth Reddy alleged that the real reason for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) turning into Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) was the corruption cases pending against the party in the Delhi High Court with regard to illegal collection of money through ‘Gulabi coolie’.
He said the TRS would be legally finished if the judgment in the case was delivered and that was why Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao was in a hurry to change the name. He said the Delhi High Court asked the Election Commission of India (ECI) to inquire into the ‘Gulabi Coolie” allegations based on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by him in 2018.
Mr. Reddy said hundreds of crores were collected by the TRS through “Gulabi Coolie” and as per the Supreme Court orders MLAs, MPs and MLCs would be committing a crime if they indulged in collection of funds and it was equivalent to taking bribes.
He said as per the ECI guidelines parties cannot take donations of more than ₹20,000 in cash and the TRS did not inform the ECI about the funds collected under ‘Gulabi Coolie”. “I have complained to the Prime Minister and it was in turn sent to the Home Minister. Later I also filed a complaint with CBDT for an inquiry into the funds collected by the TRS.”
The Congress president said he would move the Delhi High Court again seeking direction to the ECI not to recognise BRS till the pending case was disposed of as TRS is likely to lose its recognition if the judgment came.
Mr. Reddy also alleged that TRS was safe because of the BJP’s continued support of it in the corruption allegations. Both TRS and BJP together want to create a West Bengal-like situation to undermine Congress in Telangana in the next elections, he claimed.
