Political tensions flared in Hyderabad on Monday after police detained senior Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders Koppula Eshwar and Korukanti Chander, along with several party workers, for attempting to stage a protest near the 125-foot Dr. B.R. Ambedkar statue close to the State Secretariat. The protest was planned as a challenge to Minister Adluri Laxman for an open public debate on the comparative performance of the BRS and the Congress governments. The police intervened when the leaders, accompanied by a large group of supporters, tried to march toward the monument, leading to their brief detention amid heated exchanges at the site.

The confrontation follows a series of verbal duels between Eshwar and Minister Adluri Laxman over governance claims. Koppula Eshwar had publicly dared Laxman to face him in a live debate, asserting that the BRS’s ten-year record could easily outshine the Congress’s two years in power. In a sharp retort, Laxman dismissed Eshwar’s challenge and said he would only debate with senior BRS leader Harish Rao. “If Harish Rao has the courage, let him come to my home for a discussion. I defeated Eshwar once, and I don’t see any reason to engage with him again,” Laxman remarked, fueling further political confrontation between both camps.

Following the arrests, Harish Rao criticized the government’s action, calling it undemocratic and unnecessary. He stated that instead of sending police to arrest peaceful protesters, Minister Laxman should have shown the courage to participate in the open debate. Harish reiterated his earlier remarks about growing infighting within the state Cabinet, claiming that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and his ministers had already clashed over several policy disagreements. “I stand by every word I said,” Harish asserted, as BRS supporters condemned the arrests as a deliberate attempt to silence opposition voices in Telangana’s volatile political climate.