Kaleshwaram Project Row: Will It Haunt Congress Like It Did BRS in 2023?!

The defeat of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in the recent Assembly elections was attributed to several factors, and alleged corruption in the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project was one of the major ones. Just ahead of the elections, massive cracks that appeared in the pillars of the Medigadda barrage—one of the most crucial components of the project—exposed its structural weaknesses. These developments further fueled the ongoing corruption allegations, significantly influencing the election outcome. Now, a debate is emerging within the Congress party: just as the Kaleshwaram project hurt BRS in the 2023 Telangana Legislative Assembly elections 2023, could it similarly damage Congress in the next elections? Many leaders believe the answer may be yes. The primary reason is the series of decisions being taken by the government led by Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy, which are raising several doubts.

                                           While in the opposition, Revanth Reddy had strongly accused Megha Engineering and Infrastructures Limited and its head Megha Krishna Reddy of “looting Telangana like the East India Company.” He had repeatedly alleged that both the company and then Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) were involved in large-scale irregularities in the Kaleshwaram project. However, after coming to power, the Revanth Reddy government excluded all works assigned to Megha Engineering from the purview of the Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose Commission, which was set up to probe the project. This move has sparked suspicions about the government’s intentions. Many observers say this decision alone is enough to understand the Congress government’s approach.

                            Another significant point is that Justice P. C. Ghose, who headed the inquiry commission, is a highly experienced jurist who served as a Supreme Court judge, a High Court judge, and later as the Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. Despite this, the Telangana High Court set aside the commission’s report. The High Court ruled that no action could be taken against former Chief Minister KCR or former minister T. Harish Rao based on the report. The court stated that under Section 8B, the commission had failed to provide those accused an opportunity to present their arguments. Some senior IAS officers believe it is unlikely that a judge of Justice Ghose’s experience would overlook such a basic and crucial legal requirement. They suspect that the entire process appears to have unfolded according to a pre-planned design. They also argue that the Revanth Reddy government has focused more on deriving political mileage from the issue rather than seriously pursuing corruption charges related to the project.

                                         According to one IAS officer, excluding Megha Engineering entirely from the scope of the investigation itself is telling. Given the ongoing developments, even Congress leaders are expressing concerns that the Kaleshwaram project could become a major liability for their party in the next elections—just as it was for BRS earlier. What is happening now, they point out, is quite different from what was promised earlier. After the High Court ruled that no action could be taken based on the commission’s report, BRS launched a counterattack, claiming that there was no scam at all and that the entire issue was a conspiracy by Congress. This has led to further discussion within Congress circles that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy may be unintentionally providing political ammunition to BRS. Notably, while the High Court dismissed the report on technical grounds, it did not give a clean chit to the previous government. However, BRS is using these technical aspects—and the space created by the current government’s decisions—to strengthen its defense.