Politics heats up with mounting COVID-19 cases in Telangana as TRS and BJP spar over pandemic control

A day after Telangana recorded 730 new cases, the highest daily spike in COVID-19 infections till now, the BJP leaders including state unit chief Bandi Sanjay held protests against the “inept handling of the pandemic situation” by the Rao government.

Telangana has till Sunday night recorded a total of 7,802 infections, with 210 COVID-19 related deaths.

Bandi and others were detained by the Hyderabad police on Monday as they attempted to lay siege to the directorate of health office serving as the COVID-19 Command Control Centre. Some BJP leaders like MLC and city unit chief Ramachander Rao were kept under house arrest.

BJP had called for statewide demonstrations at the primary, district health centres “to highlight the TRS government’s neglecting approach in COVID-19 mitigation.”

“The TRS government is suppressing the questioning voices with arrests and police cases. This government is playing with lives of the public by not conducting tests properly. It has embezzled the thousands of crores of rupees sent by the centre for COVID-19 control. It is because of this indifferent handling that cases and death rates are surging,” said Bandi, who is also the Lok Sabha MP from Karimnagar.

The TRS and BJP are engaged in political mudslinging, after BJP national president J P Nadda’s comments faulting KCR government’s handling of the pandemic. In a virtual rally of BJP cadres on Saturday, Nadda accused Telangana government as failing on the COVID-19 front. He even charged the KCR government of huge corruption in various projects.

On Sunday, TRS ministers Etela Rajender, managing health and Harish Rao (finance) hit back. Etela alleged that the centre has diverted testing kits meant for Telangana to Bengal and has sent insufficient number of PPE kits and masks. The ministers asked BJP to desist from “cheap politics.”

BJP leaders demanded KCR to include COVID-19 under the state’s Aarogyasri scheme or else implement the Ayushman Bharat of Narendra Modi government in Telangana.