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2015 Cash For Vote Scam


The 2015 cash-for-votes scam was a South Indian political scandal, the second scandal of its kind since the 2008 North Indian cash-for-votes scandal. The 2015 political scandal started off when the Telugu Desam Party Leaders of Telangana state were caught in a video footage, aired in the media, offering bribes to a nominated MLA for his vote in the 2015 elections of the Telangana Legislative Council. The Telugu Desam MLA Revanth Reddy was arrested by the Telangana Police when he was offering Rs. 50 lakhs to the nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson. Reddy was then presented before the court of justice and sent to jail. Similarly, the phone conversation, which was quoted as the voice of N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, with the same nominated MLA was dramatically aired in the news media.

The Telugu Desam party alleged that the scandal, was a political vendetta, doctored by the Telangana State Government under the direction of K. Chandrashekhar Rao, the Chief Minister of Telangana, alongside the YSR Congress Party. In a further development, The High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the States of Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana, granted bail to Revanth Reddy and two other co-accused due to lack of substantial evidence.

The elections for the Council of Telangana Assembly were initiated and the notification for six upper house seats were released. Five candidates from TRS, one from Congress and one from Telugu Desam got ready to contest the elections. The Telugu Desam and allied BJP together does not have enough votes to win the contest. Then the news came out that they were trying to get votes from other parties. The Party President Chandrababu Naidu conducted meetings to analyze this matter, based on his suggestion the TDP Party Leaders got into action. The rival parties have sensed that they are attempting to lure their MLA’s, so the respective party leaders became cautious. In this process a high drama took place at Stephenson’s place. The TDP MLA Revanth Reddy met Stephenson with the help of an aide. Following Revanth’s suggestion this aide tried to deliver Rs.50 lakh currency bundles. The videos of Revanth Reddy during this transaction turned out to be critical and aired on TV News channels.


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