BRS MLA offers saris, bangles to 10 defectors, Cong hits back

Bharat Rashtra Samiti MLA P Kaushik Reddy's offer to send saris and bangles to 10 party legislators who defected to the Congress, has evoked a strong response from the women leaders of the ruling party who demanded an immediate apology from him.

Congress leader and chairperson of the Telangana State Women's Cooperative Development Corporation, B Shobha Rani, hit out at Reddy over his comments saying he insulted women with his disrespectful comments.

At a press conference, Rani took off her footwear and warned the BRS MLA over his remarks.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad on Wednesday, Reddy, the BRS MLA from the Huzurabad constituency said he wants to send gifts--saris and bangles to the 10 BRS MLAs who joined Congress and asked them to wear it.

"If the defected MLAs have any shame or guts, they should first resign from their posts and face fresh elections. I will be sending each of them saris and bangles. They should wear them and move in public," he said.

Reddy also said he would send the saris and bangles to the residences of the defected BRS MLAs by courier.

Rani said, "A woman is the President of the country. It was a woman, Sonia Gandhi, who granted Telangana state. Women were at the forefront of the Telangana struggle. Kaushik Reddy has insulted women with his rubbish talk."

"If he again speaks insulting women, he will have to face this (footwear)," she warned.

Enraged Congress women leaders asked Reddy to first send the items to BRS president and former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and the party's working president KT Rama Rao, saying they had started the defections.

They also urged the Telangana State Women's Commission to take cognisance of Reddy's comments.

The women Congress leaders demanded action should be taken against Reddy and urged the speaker to suspend him from the assembly.

They said that they would also lodge a complaint with the police against Reddy.

As many as 10 BRS MLAs have crossed over to the Congress and several BRS MLCs have also joined the ruling party after the 2023 assembly polls in the state which saw the national party come to power, ending the BRS' decade-long reign.

BRS legislators KP Vivekanand and Kaushik Reddy on Wednesday met the state legislative assembly secretary and asked him to place the disqualification petitions of three party MLAs, who had joined the ruling Congress, before the Speaker to fix a schedule for hearing the pleas as directed by the Telangana high court.