BRS MP stabbed during poll rallyin Telangana,1 held

BRS parliamentarian Kotha Prabhakar Reddy was stabbed during an election campaign in Telangana. The attacker has been apprehended. Reddy's condition is stable after undergoing surgery. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao condemned the attack and promised to take action.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) parliamentarian from Medak, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy was stabbed by a man, who runs a Youtube channel, during the party’s election campaign at Surampally village of Doulatabak block of Telangana’s Siddipet district on Monday afternoon, party leaders said.

Kotha Prabhakar Reddy

The incident happened when Reddy, who is also the BRS candidate from Dubbak assembly constituency in the upcoming assembly elections in the state, was coming out of the house of a pastor as part of the door-to-door election campaign. The assaulter, identified as Dattani Raju, pounced on him and stabbed him once on the right side of his stomach.

The accused belongs to Cheppyala village, was immediately apprehended and thrashed by the party workers, before being handed over to the police.

Reddy, who sustained a stab injury on the right side of the stomach, was rushed to the Gajwel Hospital and after the initial treatment, he was shifted to a corporate hospital in Hyderabad. His condition is stable, a party leader said.

Later in the evening, Prabhakar Reddy underwent a surgery at the Yashoda Hospitals in Secunderabad. Senior surgeon Dr Vijay Kumar said the stabbing resulted in a deep cut in the intestine. “We have performed surgery and removed a portion of small intestine to prevent septic infection,” he said.

Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) called on Prabhakar Reddy and wished him speedy recovery. KCR said Telangana had never witnessed such violent politics in the last 10 years. “The attack on Prabhakar Reddy is nothing but an attack on me. We are engaged in a battle of ideas and issues. However, today the opposition resorted to a violent attack on our candidate,” he said, adding that stringent action would be taken against the perpetrators.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president A Revanth Reddy condemned the attack and said the Congress party would never believe in violent politics.

“Right from the day one, Congress has been advocating non-violence. We demand that whoever had attacked the BRS candidate should be dealt with stringently,” he said, adding that the investigation should be done in a transparent manner.

BJP candidate and present Dubbak MLA M Raghunandan Rao also condemned the attack and said, “The ruling party leaders are unnecessarily jumping to conclusions and blaming me on social media. I am no way involved in that. Let the police investigate and bring the real culprits to book.”