In relation to the excise policy case, Delhi’s Rouse Avenue court on Monday sent BRS leader K Kavitha in judicial custody till April 23. After her three days in police custody was completed, Kavitha, the daughter of former Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was brought before the court by the CBI.

According to the reports, the CBI informed the court at the hearing that the BRS leader did not need to be subjected to any further custodial questioning.

On March 15, Kavitha was taken into custody by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). She was sent to the CBI custody till March 23 after her arrest. On April 11, the CBI took her into custody and placed her in Tihar jail. The BRS leader had requested temporary relief because her son had an exam, and a Delhi court had previously set its judgment for April 9.

Kavitha was called in for questioning several times prior to her arrest, but she skipped at least two of those summonses. Kavitha was questioned three times in the previous year, and her statements were recorded by the central agency in accordance with the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was allegedly paid Rs 100 crore in kickbacks to influence the excise policy in favour of a liquor lobby, according to documents linked to a land deal and WhatsApp conversations that were found on a co-accused Buchi Babu’s phone during Kavitha’s recent three days in CBI custody.

Following AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh, the BRS leader was the third popular politician to be taken into custody in connection with the investigation. Kejriwal was the first chief minister in office to be arrested in this matter on March 21.

The Enforcement Directorate claims that Kavitha belonged to the South Group, which gave AAP leaders bribes totaling Rs 100 crore in exchange for nine retail zones under the since-canceled program. The names of other members of the group had also been made public by the investigation agency: Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, MP for the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSCRCP); his son Raghav Magunta; Sarath Reddy, founder of the Aurobindo Group; and Sameer Mahendru, a businessman from Delhi.

The post Excise policy case: Delhi court extends BRS leader K Kavitha’s judicial custody till April 23 appeared first on APN News.

The BRS in Telangana suffered another major jolt as its sitting MLA and former minister Kadiam Srihari and his daughter Kadiam Kavya on Sunday joined the Congress Party in the presence of chief minister and TPCC president A Revanth Reddy. Congress leaders had earlier invited Srihari to join the party. Shrihari said for many reasons people are moving away from BRS. So to serve the people and to do something for the constituency, he decided to take a call.

Srihari’s daughter Kavya who is a BRS candidate from Warangal, also announced her decision to join Congress. She cited the recent allegations of corruption and phone tapping against the previous K Chandrasekhar Rao – led regime were the main reason for her making an exit from BRS. She said the allegations lowered the party’s prestige. She also mentioned there was a lack of coordination and cooperation among BRS leaders in the district which is causing more damage to the party.

BRS had decided to field Kavya after denying ticket to sitting MP Pasunuri Dayakar. As a result of which Dayakar joined the Congress party. Dayakar was elected in 2015 by-election and in 2019, from Warangal, a seat reserved for scheduled castes.

Srihari a prominent SC leader started his political jorney in the 1980’s with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), had also served as minister in the cabinets of N.T. Rama Rao and Chandrababu Naidu in combined Andhra Pradesh. He had also served as TDP general secretary and Politburo member.

 A 4 time MLA from station Ghanpur in Warangal district, he joined TRS (now BRS) in 2013. He was elected to Lok Sabha from Warangal on TRS ticket in 2014, but the next year, BRS president and then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao inducted him into the cabinet as cabinet Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister. Srihari and his daughter joined Congress a day after Hyderabad Mayor Vijayalaxmi Gadwal of BRS joined the ruling party.

The post Telangana: BRS Leader K Srihari joins Congress appeared first on APN News.

In connection with the money laundering case pertaining to the alleged liquor policy scam, a Delhi Court remanded Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) until March 23.

Following Kavitha’s arrest, the ED presented her, and Special Judge MK Nagpal of Rouse Avenue Courts granted the order. Kavitha was placed on a 10-day remand order by the ED.

Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhary who was representing made the initial arguments against the arrest, arguing that it is a blatant abuse of power and authority.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader K Kavitha said on Saturday that the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) arrest of her was illegal.

At 5:20 p.m. on Friday, the BRS leader was taken into custody by the central agency from her Hyderabad home in Banjara Hills.

The 46-year-old MLC, daughter of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief and former Telangana Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao, is the third high-profile leader to be detained in this case. Leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh are already arrested in the same case in addition to her.

As her petition for no coercive action in this case is pending before the Supreme Court and is scheduled for March 19, the Enforcement Directorate was expected to request 10-day custody of her from the court. Her defense, on the other hand, was expected to contest the request, claiming that the probe agency action was illegal.

The ED claims that Kavitha was associated with a group of booze dealers known as the South Group, which sought to have a bigger role in the now-scrapped Delhi excise policy. One of the accused, Vijay Nair, allegedly accepted bribes totaling at least Rs 100 crore from the South Group, an AAP leadership group reportedly led by Sarath Reddy, Kavitha, and Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy.

Meanwhile, Kavitha was called by the Enforcement Directorate to appear in court three times last year and once again this year, but she declined, claiming a Supreme Court direction that protected her from any coercive actions.

The post Delhi excise policy case: K Kavitha to remain in ED custody till March 23 appeared first on APN News.

Election Commission of India’s data revealed on Thursday that BJP received the highest sum among all political parties through electoral bonds scheme. Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress (TMC) redeemed electoral bonds of much higher value than the Congress. The BJP redeemed bonds worth Rs 6061 crore followed by Trinamool Congress receiving Rs 1610 crore and the Congress is on the third spot with Rs 1422 crore.

Tamil Nadu-based Future Gaming and Hotel Services donated the biggest sum in these 5 years: Rs 1368 crore. Andhra Pradesh based Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited donated Rs 891 crore, Qwik supply chain private private limited donated 400 crore and Haldia Energy Limited donated Rs 377 crore.

The Goenkas, Indigo, Spicejet, Jindals, Bajajs, Birlas, PVR, DLF, Mahindra and Mahindra, ITC Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal’s, Lakshmi Mittal are among the notable names who donated to the parties. Sunil Mittal’s 3 companies together purchased a total of Rs 246 crore worth of bonds. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal bought Rs 35 crore worth of bonds in individual capacity.

The donations made to the Congress and the Samajwadi Party was made in the name of President, All India Congress Committee and Adyaksha Samajwadi Party. The SBI had informed the Supreme Court that out of 22, 217 electoral bonds 22030 were redeemed between April 1,2019 and February 15.

The buyers of electoral bonds included Ultratech Cement, Cipla, Kaypee Enterprises, ITC, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, CEAT Tyres, Philips carbon Black Limited, Jindal Group, Vardhman Textiles, Sun Pharma, Welspun, Sula Wines, Keventer, PVR, Edelweiss, Apollo Tyres, Vedanta Ltd, DLF Commercial Developers, Bharti Airtel, Torrent Power, Piramal Enterprises, Megha Engineering, Grasim Industries, Indigo and Spicejet.

The political parties who benefited from the scheme include the BJP, Congress, AIADMK, BRS, ShivSena, TDP, YSR Congress, DMK, JD-S, NCP, Trinamool Congress, JDU, RJD,AAP, the Samajwadi Party, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, BJD, Goa Forward Party, Maharshtrawadi Gomantak party, Sikkim Krantikari Morcha, JMM, Sikkim Democratic Front and the Jana Sena Party.

The post BJP got Rs 6,061 crore of electoral bonds sold, more than half the bonds appeared first on APN News.

On Thursday, Anumula Revanth Reddy became the first Congress chief minister of Telangana, the state with the shortest lifespan in India, when she took the oath of office. Hyderabad’s LB Stadium hosted the new government’s swearing-in event.

In addition, Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu was sworn in as the state’s deputy chief minister once it was established in 2014.

The chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party Sonia Gandhi, and Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge attended the swearing-in ceremony. Congress Party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, also participated in the event.

In the most recent Assembly elections, the Congress defeated the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and took 64 of the 119 seats.

38 seats were won by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), which governed the newest state in India for ten years. AIMIM received seven seats while the BJP secured eight.

Meanwhile, three days after the elections had been announced, Revanth Reddy took the oath. The Congress questioned why no one was raising concerns about the BJP’s tardiness in naming chief ministers for the three states it had won—Rishikesh, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress party was under fire in the media less than a day after the election results were announced on December 3rd for allegedly having delayed in selecting a chief minister for Telangana. Our CM, who was announced the day before, will take over at 1:00 PM today.

However, three days have passed and the BJP is still unable to even name their chief ministers for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Why doesn’t the BJP face consequences for the apparent delay? Jairam Ramesh, general secretary of the Congress, said.

The daunting task before the new chief minister is to carry out the six party pledges, one of which is to provide free transit for women on Telangana State Road Transport Corporation buses, just like in Karnataka.

The post Telangana: Revanth Reddy takes oath as Chief Minister, Bhatti Vikramarka as Deputy appeared first on APN News.

As the counting of votes for the Telangana assembly election began, the early trends showed that the people of the state are crestfallen by the predominantly active BRS party. The Congress has taken over the ruling BRS which is looking forward to a third consecutive term in the state, as per the early leads. Nonetheless, the BRS’s fate lies between development and allegation of corruption in Telangana. 

BRS formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) was founded in 2001, with K Chandrashekhar Rao’s single-point agenda of granting separate statehood to Telangana. Later, coinciding with the rise of Bharatiya Janata Party, Telangana was formed in 2014. Expectedly, the BRS won the first and second assembly election taking into consideration its expansive transactional welfarism, regional sentiment etc. 

Additionally, KCR also maintained a fair degree of communal harmony with special funds for the Muslim community. Though this year too, in a similar bid to woo the Muslim community the chief minister and BRS president KCR pledged to set up a special information technology (IT) park for the Muslim youth, people seem to be unmoved. The grand old party is witnessing an unprecedented decliner in its bastion.  

Despite various welfare measures schemes like Rythu Bandhu scheme for landowning farmers by granting Rs 5000 per acre twice a year, Dalit Bandhu scheme, which promised Rs 10 lakh to Dalit families to set up their own business, there has been a visible change in mood in the state. 

Though BRS delivered on transactional welfarism, it also neglected the aspirational demands rooted in the statehood movement such as ‘KG to PG’ free education. The party neglected higher education as apparently KCR was upset over youth being part of many of the social mobilisations in the state. Furthermore, Universities in the state functioned without vice-chancellors for well over three years after the formation of Telangana in 2014 and many of these universities still continue to starve for funds.

Meanwhile, the encouragement received by caste-based occupations through funds presented a rather grim picture for the future of many Dalit-Bahujan castes. The grand old party in the state presented subsistence welfare but abandoned aspirational imagination. The foreseen decline of BRS marks the shift from subsistence relief provided by patronage politics to aspirational politics based on self-respect and greater social equality.

Noteworthy is that the party’s misgovernance and loss of direction have marked the second term of KCR’s tenure. The party supremo’s narrow and casteist vision is seen to be represented by his abrasive, arrogant and non-responsive persona. Furthermore, he has also distanced himself from the mass leaders of the statehood movement and got many of them arrested. 

The post Telangana election results: BRS witnesses decline in citadel after misgovernance plagued KCR’s second tenure appeared first on APN News.

A clash between workers of the rulling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Congress party broke out in Rangareddy district during the ongoing state elections in Telangana. The police reached the spot to control the situation and no injuries have been reported in the clashes.

Earlier scuffle broke out the Congress, BRS and BJP workers at a polling booth in Jangaon. According to reports BRS workers stopped state Congress president – party candidate Revanth Reddy’s brother Konadal Reddy from visiting the polling station in Kamareddy. They said Reddy is not a voter here and as a result is not authorized to visit.

BRS workers told the media, Kondal Reddy is roaming around with a fake pass with 20 people. He went to three polling stations with them in three vehicles but the police did not stop them. The BRS workers said Reddy is indulging in hooliganisim after coming here. BRS workers told the media that they are going to complain to the Election Commision.

Telangana is the youngest state in India where the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party are up against each other. A total of 2290 contestants are fighting the elections. Some of the important candidates fighting the election are  Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his son KT Rama Rao, Congress President A Revanth Reddy and BJP’s Bandi Sanjay Kumar and D Arvind.

A total of 119 candidates are contesting the elections from 119 seats from the BRS. According to the seat sharing agreement between the BJP and Jana Sena are contesting the state elctions on 111 and 8 seats respectively. The voting started at 7am and will continue till 5pm in 106 constituencies. In 13 Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas in the state, the polling started at 7am and will continue till 4pm. According to the Election commission a total of 20.64% polling was recorded till 11 am.

The post Telangana elections: Clash between Bharat Rashtra Samithi and Congress workers breaks out in Rangareddy district appeared first on APN News.

As the people of Telangana commenced voting to elect the 119 members of the state, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that only a corruption free and pro poor government can work selflessly for the prosperity of the state. 

Taking to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, Amit Shah appealed to the people of Telangana to come out in large numbers to form a government for whom the priority is empowerment and not appeasement. 

Former Congress President and Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also urged voters to vote for the construction of golden Telangana and make Congress win. He mentioned that today the people of Telangana are going to win on drums. On the social media platform X, Rahul Gandhi also shared a video of him in a roadshow.  

In the social media post, Rahul Gandhi wrote that today the Prajala will defeat Dorala, apparently stating that the government of the people will defeat the government of nobles. Calling the people of Telangana and his brothers and sisters, the senior Congress leader urged them to step out and vote in large numbers. 

Meanwhile, the Congress has lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission against BRS MLA K Kavitha, accusing her of violating the Model Code of Conduct by allegedly urging the public to vote for BRS. Reports said that the complaint was announced in a press note by senior Telangana Congress leader G NIranjan. As per the complaint, K Kavitha, after casting her vote at the DAV School in Banjara hills polling station, violated the Election Code by appealing to the people to vote for BRS. 

There are nearly 3.26 crore eligible voters in Telangana, who would exercise their franchise in 35,655 polling stations set up across the state. The electoral process will conclude at 5 pm in the state. The counting of the votes will take place on December 3. 

The post As Telangana votes, Home Minister Amit Shah says only corruption-free, pro-poor government can work selflessly for prosperity of the state appeared first on APN News.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said he was confident the BRS would come to Power in the present assembly elections with a better majority than in the past. He said the Congress party would get less than 20 of the total 119 seats.

KCR was addressing a rally in Madhira. He attacked the Congress party and said there are about a dozen Chief Minister candidates in the party. He said the Congress party is not going to win and gave his guarantee. K Chandrasekhar Rao said he had come on his 70^th constituency visit in Madhira which was part of his election campaign.

He further added only 30 constituencies were left. He said if Rao went further campaigning Congress would be further defeated. He said the BRS government would be formed with excellent majority. He said he did not have any doubts about it. K Chandrasekhar Rao said the history of the Congress party was of deceiving people.

He said the Congress party which ruled undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2014, before the formation Telangana could not ensure water for drinking and irrigation in the state. He said under his government’s rule rapid growth and development has taken place in the state of Telangana. He said the state was at top position in India in terms of per capita income.

KCR further added the Congress party had promised to bring back Indirramma Rajyam, the welfare rule of former PM Indira Gandhi. But the period was marked by Emergency and the state of Dalits has not improved since. He said if the welfare scheme of BRS like the Dalit Bandhu would have been implemented soon after independence, then the Dalits would not have remained poor. K Chandrasekhar Rao is contesting for elections from Kamareddy assembly segment, his native village Konapur. The place has become a focus of growth and development.   

The post Telangana elections: K Chandrasekhar Rao says Congress will get less than 20 seats, BRS will return with bigger majority appeared first on APN News.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi working president and Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao fell off an election campaign vehicle during a rally in Armoor town of Nizamabad district on Thursday. KTR sustained minor injury when along with other BRS leaders fell off a van as the driver of the vehicle applied the brakes suddenly.

The BRS leader was standing on the van along with other local leaders of BRS. The driver of the van applied the brakes suddenly. This resulted in the breaking of the iron railing due to which the BRS leaders fell on the ground.

The minister’s security guards immediately rushed to the rescue of the BRS leaders. The incident took place when KTR along with other BRS leaders were going in a rally to the office of the returning officer for the filing of the nomination by the BRS candidate from Armoor, Jeevan Reddy.

According to officials from KTR’s office KTR continued with the rally. He later left for Kodangal for the road show. Large number of comments started coming on the viral video. One social media user joked that he had got the meme material for the next ten years.

One user said this video symbolizes the fall of BRS and the rise of the BJP.

Another user Nikhil Arora said KTR fell before forming the government.

One social media user joked the driver must be from the opposition party.

One X user said the BRS is not able to take care of its own party, how will the party is going to take care of the people of the state.

One user compared the falling politicians of BRS to the Pakistani economy.

Another user Yamraj said the BRS government would not fall. Another user Mask compared the falling KTR to the fall of wickets of Australia against Afghanistan. One social media Mona Patel hoped everybody was fine.  

The post Watch: KT Rama Rao falls off van during election campaigning, video goes viral appeared first on APN News.