Adilabad (Telangana) : BJP MP Soyam Bapurao made sensational comments against his own party leaders from the Adilabad district. Bapurao alleged that party district president Payal Shankar and former MP Rathod Ramesh were defaming him saying that he used the funds of MPLADS (MP Local Area Development Scheme) for the construction of his own.
The Adilabad MP accused those leaders of not being able to accept his political growth despite being an Adivasi. Bapurao said that his words were distorted and an 'edited' video was being circulated on social media to defame him. The MP spoke to the media on Monday at his residence in Ruiyadi of Talamadu Mandal and also in Adilabad.
Bapurao described BJP leaders Payal Shankar and Rathod Ramesh as the accomplices in the defamation issue. He clarified that the works taken up with the MPLADS funds would require the collector's permission and there would be no possibility to use them arbitrarily. He declared that he was ready to resign if the allegations were proven against him.
The BJP MP said that in the past, these leaders spread rumours that he was going to join the Congress at one time and the BRS at another time. NRI Kandi Srinivasa Reddy left the BJP and joined the Congress recently because he could not bear the problems being created by these leaders, he said. Bapurao said that he has requested the party leadership to take action against them and will once again complain to the state president Bandi Sanjay on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the BJP district leaders initially thought of condemning the MP's comments but the party's top leadership said no. Payal Shankar informed the media that there will be a meeting in the party office in the evening, but it was later postponed for some unknown reasons. The MP's comments have gone viral.
In the video, Bapurao purportedly said that like previous MPs, he did not embezzle the funds of the MPLADS but at the same time he did not use them for development projects. "As an MP, if I don't have my own house, I will not have respect. So I built a house and made my son's marriage with these funds," the MP allegedly said. The MP's purported comments on using MPLADS funds for his personal use are going viral on social media.
