BJP’s lakhs-of-crores claim arrives without the crores
The Section 22-A problem is documented. The BJP’s spectacular valuation is not — at least not in any evidence made public so far.
The land-record problem is documented; the spectacular valuation is not.
The Telangana BJP has announced protests at Indira Park on September 5 and 6, demanding a white paper on lands included in the Section 22-A prohibited-properties list. BJP Legislature Party leader Alleti Maheshwar Reddy has alleged a “scam worth lakhs of crores” under the Congress government and threatened to “storm the Assembly” if corrective action is not taken. The headline number, however, comes without a property list, acreage total, valuation method, audit or agency finding in the material reviewed. The crores have been announced; the calculation has not.
The underlying problem is real enough to deserve records, not theatre. Telangana’s Bhu Bharati portal provides a grievance process for properties included in the prohibited list. A February 2024 government account acknowledged land-record errors, coordination failures between the Registration and Revenue departments, and transactions involving prohibited-list properties. It also said more than 2.45 lakh Dharani applications were pending then — a figure for all pending applications, not Section 22-A properties.
Reddy has separately alleged that Rs 15,000 crore was transferred to benami companies linked to Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, and said evidence would be submitted to the ED and CBI. The reviewed material does not establish that the evidence was submitted or substantiate the allegation. The BJP has not publicly supplied the property-wise records needed to turn a political claim into an auditable case. For now, the land-record mess has documents; the BJP’s “lakhs of crores” has a microphone.