BRS working president K.T. Rama Rao issues legal notices to BJP leaders Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Dharmapuri Arvind, seeking apology over remarks on his family.

Escalating the political face-off in Telangana, K. T. Rama Rao, working president of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, on January 24 issued legal notices to two senior BJP leaders, accusing them of making defamatory statements against him and his family.

The notices were sent to Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Nizamabad MP Dharmapuri Arvind, demanding an unconditional apology within five days. KTR warned that failure to do so would force him to initiate legal action.

According to the legal notice addressed to Bandi Sanjay Kumar, KTR’s counsel objected to remarks allegedly made during a press conference on January 23, in which the Union Minister claimed that KTR’s family had amassed massive wealth through phone tapping and that celebrities’ phones were also monitored. The notice stated that these allegations were false, baseless, and malicious, and pointed out that similar claims were repeated despite a defamation case already pending before a city civil court.

In a separate notice to Dharmapuri Arvind, KTR’s lawyers took strong exception to remarks allegedly linking him to drug abuse and drug supply, terming them reckless and defamatory.

The Sircilla MLA said such statements, made without evidence, amounted to “cheap political mudslinging” and were part of a deliberate attempt to damage his reputation. The notice further stated that KTR, a former minister associated with major development initiatives—particularly in the IT sector—was being targeted through politically motivated allegations rather than facts.

The legal move underscores how the phone-tapping controversy has spilled into personal and legal territory, sharpening tensions between the BRS and BJP. As political rhetoric intensifies ahead of elections, such cases may increasingly shift from public platforms to courtrooms, potentially redefining the tone of campaign discourse in Telangana.