Tensions escalate as police arrest Harish Rao, other BRS leaders

High political drama unfolded in Hyderabad on Thursday as the face-off between the ruling Congress and the opposition BRS over Telangana’s debt burden and alleged irregularities in Gurukul residential school tenders culminated in the arrest of several BRS leaders, even as the leaders from both parties traded fresh challenges for an open debate.

Former Ministers T Harish Rao and V Srinivas Goud, BRS general secretary RS Praveen Kumar and several party leaders were arrested by the police outside Telangana Bhavan while attempting to proceed to the Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial (Gun Park), where



Congress ministers had challenged them to a public debate. 

The arrests came amid heavy police deployment around Telangana Bhavan, Gun Park and other key locations, as hundreds of Congress and BRS workers gathered, raising fears of a confrontation.

Addressing the media before being taken into custody, Harish Rao accused the Congress government of using the police to prevent the BRS from participating in the very debate that its Ministers had proposed. He said they were carrying documentary evidence to substantiate its allegations of irregularities in Gurukul school tenders.