Leaders of Telangana's ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are blaming each other for the exam paper leak that has rocked Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC).
Both the parties are targeting each other in what is being seen as an attempt to take political mileage from the issue ahead of Assembly elections scheduled towards the end of 2023.
Both BRS and BJP leaders were busy digging out the past record of the accused to claim that they have links with the rivals.
After police arrested nine accused in the case on Monday, the opposition parties, student and youth organisation demanded resignation of TSPSC Chairman Janardhan Reddy.
The TSPSC had conducted the examination on March 5 for 833 vacancies of Assistant Engineer, Municipal Assistant Engineer, Technical Officer, and Junior Technical Officer in various engineering departments. A total of 55,000 candidates had written the exam.
Following the arrest of the accused, the Commission cancelled the exam and also postponed other exams scheduled to be held later this month.
Opposition parties have made serious allegations against the Commission head, who is appointed by the state government. Doubts were also raised about the exams conducted in the past.
Going a step ahead, BJP leaders alleged that top leaders of the BRS were behind exam paper leak. BJP state President Bandi Sanjay Kumar trained guns on Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his team.
Sanjay alleged that question papers of all TSPSC exams were leaked and that the BRS government is messing around with the lives of unemployed youth.
The BJP leader also shared the OMR sheet of P. Praveen Kumar, key accused in the case. He said Praveen, who was personal assistant of TSPSC Secretary, secured highest marks in Group I prelims.
Hitting back at the BJP, BRS leaders shared on social media photographs of second accused Atla Rajasekhar Reddy with BJP leaders.
The police reportedly identified the accused as an active worker of the BJP.
The BRS has alleged that the paper leak case is a conspiracy by the BJP to defame the ruling party.
BRS Working President and state minister K. T. Rama Rao took to Twitter to request the Director General of Police to to enquire this matter thoroughly and bring perpetrators to justice.
"Even by the very low standards of BJP, this is vulgarity at its worst Just to malign Telangana Govt, BJP seems to have hatched a conspiracy to destroy the lives of innocent youth," KTR wrote.
Sanjay came out with fresh allegations on Thursday. He alleged that Renuka who honey trapped Praveen is associated with the BRS.
He claimed that her mother is sarpanch of Mansoorpally village and belongs to BRS.
The BJP leader said Renuka and her husband got government jobs because of the BRS while Rajasekhar was hired by the TSPSC.
"BRS does all criminal things and shamelessly blames the BJP," he said.
The accused arrested in the case include two employees of TSPSC and a police constable.
On March 14, Hyderabad police transferred the paper leakage case to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Central Crime Station (CCS).
Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has already directed the TSPSC to submit a report on the question paper leakage.
