In Telangana, allegations of “Operation Lotus'” have emerged on Wednesday after the police claimed to have detained three individuals allegedly caught within the act of bribing 4 MLAs of the state’s ruling party TRS into switching sides.
After getting a note by an MLA of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi party, Telangana police raided a farmhouse where the deal is said to have taken place, police chief Stephen Raveendra informed the media in an unique interview.
The police reported that Rs 100 crore was provided to a key chief within the negotiations at a farmhouse. Also, sources mentioned that Apart from ₹ 100 crore for the principal chief, ₹ 50 crore was provided to every MLA.
The MLAs informed Police authorities that they were being “lured and bribed to change parties,”. Marking the same, Police chief Mr Raveendra said, “MLA’s said they were offered big money, contracts and posts to switch parties,”.
He added that detained persons are Satiesh Sharma, alias Ram Chandra Bharati, a priest from Haryana’s Faridabad, D Simhayaji, a seer from Tirupati, and a businessman, Nandakumar.
For the unversed, Operation Lotus is the word used by the opposition parties to mark the BJP’s bribing of ruling party MLAs in states to join the BJP government. Almost from 2019, there have been many claims that the BJP has been attempting to launch an “Operation Lotus” in Telangana.