Tension grips Telangana's Karimnagar as union min Bandi Sanjay's supporters vandalise BRS MLA's office

Tension gripped Karimnagar in Telangana after BJP workers vandalised the camp office of former minister and opposition BRS MLA Gangula Kamalakar. Supporters of Union Minister Bandi Sanjay stormed the office, pelting it with stones and wielding sticks, smashing windows, doors, and furniture, and damaging cars and other vehicles parked on the premises.

The attack took place while another BRS MLA Padi Kaushik Reddy was addressing a press conference inside the office. In retaliation, BRS cadres attempted to march to Bandi Sanjay's office in Karimnagar, but were intercepted by police before they could reach it.

The violence was rooted in an escalating war of words between the two parties. Earlier Bandi Sanjay had demanded that BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) submit to a drug test a challenge Kaushik Reddy sharply turned on its head, daring the Union Minister to take the test himself. Reddy further alleged that Bandi Sanjay's hair loss was a side effect of consuming drug-laced tobacco products.

Enraged with Kaushik Reddy's comments, Sanjay's supporters stormed onto the office of Kamalakar where he was addressing the press conference.

“I strongly condemn the despicable attack by supporters of Union Minister Bandi Sanjay on the camp office of BRS MLAs Padi Kaushik Reddy and Gangula Kamalakar of Karimnagar. I spoke with MLA Kaushik Reddy immediately after the attack took place. Entering the camp office in broad daylight like gangsters and vandalising vehicles and the office premises is an utterly reprehensible act. It is shameful that the police stood by as mere spectators even as such blatant lawlessness unfolded before their eyes. Having turned into CM Revanth's B-team, Bandi Sanjay is inciting these cowardly acts because he is unable to answer the questions raised by BRS leaders. Other than performing political somersaults every time to cover up the Chief Minister's failures, Bandi Sanjay has done nothing for the people of Karimnagar. As a Minister of State for Home Affairs at the Centre, engineering a law-and-order breakdown through his own supporters is nothing short of making a mockery of democracy,” said KTR.