New Delhi, April 20: A three-member delegation from the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is currently in the national capital, New Delhi. The team is consulting legal experts regarding alleged irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project and the disqualification of BRS legislators reportedly involved with the Congress party.
Under the guidance of K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), former Chief Minister of Telangana and BRS president, the delegation departed for Delhi on Monday.
The team includes T. Harish Rao, the BRS’s deputy leader in the assembly and former minister, former MP Vinod Kumar, and Rajya Sabha member Vaddiraju Ravichandra.
They will meet with senior Supreme Court lawyers to discuss the party’s strategy concerning two significant cases.
The Telangana High Court is set to deliver its verdict on April 22 regarding separate writ petitions filed by KCR, Harish Rao, and two others. These petitions seek to annul the report of Justice P.C. Ghosh’s commission, which investigated alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme.
KCR, Harish Rao, retired IAS officer and former Chief Secretary S.K. Joshi, and serving IAS officer Smita Sabharwal filed these petitions challenging the report.
After hearing arguments on the petitions, the bench led by Chief Justice A.P. Singh and Justice G.M. Mohiuddin reserved its judgment last month. The ruling was initially scheduled for April 8 but was postponed to April 22.
The BRS team will also discuss with Supreme Court lawyers the possibility of appealing to the Supreme Court if the High Court dismisses the petitions filed by the party leaders.
The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), touted as the world’s largest multi-stage lift irrigation project, was initiated by the then BRS government in May 2016. The main component was inaugurated by KCR in 2019.
In March 2024, the Congress government established a commission led by former Supreme Court Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghosh to investigate alleged irregularities in the planning, design, construction, quality control, operation, and maintenance of the Kaleshwaram project’s Medigadda, Annaram, and Sundila dams. The commission submitted its report to the Telangana government on July 31, 2025.
The commission held KCR directly and indirectly responsible for irregularities in the planning, implementation, completion, operation, and maintenance of the Kaleshwaram project. It also found Harish Rao, former Chief Secretary Joshi, and former Chief Secretary Smita Sabharwal culpable.
The significance of the BRS team’s visit to Delhi is heightened by recent developments concerning petitions demanding the disqualification of 10 BRS legislators who allegedly joined the Congress in 2024.
BRS leaders have challenged in the High Court the assembly speaker’s order that dismissed the petitions for the legislators’ disqualification. Last week, the High Court instructed the legislators to submit their responses by May 6.
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