House arrests of opposition leaders on the eve of a public consultation, a contested riverfront project accused of displacing lakhs of families, and 70 lakh farmers allegedly left without drought relief — BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao fired a multi-front salvo at the Telangana Congress government on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, calling the administration's conduct a replay of Emergency-era politics.

House arrests before the Musi consultation

KTR's sharpest immediate charge is the reported house arrest of former minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and Rajendra Nagar in-charge Karthik Reddy, allegedly to prevent them from attending a public-opinion exercise on the Musi River Project. 'Preventing them from participating in the Musi public consultation and placing them under house arrest is an utterly despicable act,' he wrote, demanding their 'unconditional and immediate release.' The move, he argued, is symptomatic of a government that silences dissent rather than invites it. BRS, he underlined, will not tolerate 'such conspiracies to strangle our voice' on behalf of Musi basin residents.

The Musi project: riverfront renewal or 'lootification'?

The Musi River Project — an urban infrastructure and riverfront redevelopment initiative along Hyderabad's storied river — has become the central battleground between the ruling Indian National Congress and the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi since the Congress came to power in December 2023. KTR alleges the project is a cover for displacing 'lakhs of families' and handing the freed land to real-estate interests, costing the public exchequer what he describes as 'lakh-anna-sar koti lootification' — a purported ₹1.5 lakh crore scam. The figure is an opposition claim and has not been independently verified. The government has not publicly detailed final land-acquisition numbers.

Drought without relief: the ₹50,000-per-acre demand

Woven through the political attack is an agricultural distress alarm. KTR says 70 lakh farmers across Telangana are reeling from a drought that has destroyed standing crops, and that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has failed to announce the minimum ₹50,000 per acre compensation the opposition is demanding. 'While lakhs of farmers are drowning in the drought and shedding tears, the Chief Minister is busy hunting for bundles in the Musi,' he wrote — a pointed contrast between rural suffering and an urban infrastructure controversy. The Congress government, which unseated BRS after a decade in power, now faces the twin pressure of managing a major city project and responding to agrarian stress in the state's interior.

Emergency comparison and BRS's declared fight

KTR invoked Indira Gandhi's Emergency of 1975-77 — a politically loaded reference in Indian democracy — to frame Chief Minister Revanth Reddy's governance style as authoritarian. The comparison is the kind of rhetorical escalation common in Indian state politics when an opposition accuses a ruling party of suppressing protest. BRS, which governed Telangana from its formation in 2014 until the 2023 election defeat, is clearly positioning the Musi project and drought relief as its twin comeback narratives. KTR closed with a clear declaration: 'BRS's fight will continue until we stop Revanth's plot to demolish lakhs of homes under the guise of Musi lootification.' Jai Telangana.

If the government does not move on house-arrest releases, expect BRS to escalate to the courts — and the drought-compensation figure of ₹50,000 per acre to become a legislative session flashpoint.