Hyderabad, Nov 12 (IANS): Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president K. T. Rama Rao on Tuesday invited AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge to visit ‘Goat Mandi’ in Telangana.

He took a jibe at Kharge for his statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in buying MLAs like goats.

“Kharge ji spoke about ‘BJP buying MLAs like goats’ in Maharashtra yesterday. I invite him to come to Telangana. He will be surprised by how well the Goat industry is performing here,” Rama Rao posted on X.

“Thanks to the Congress, the leading goat purchaser 10 BRS MLAs were taken into the Congress party. They were bought, threatened, maybe a few were cajoled. None of them resigned. Today the situation is so pathetic that none of the 10 MLAs know which party they belong to. I dare you to make them stand in a press conference and ask. They are all scared of the court & losing their post,” he added.

KTR, as the BRS leader is popularly known, called it a classic hypocrisy of the Congress party.

Earlier, addressing a press conference in Delhi, KTR also said Kharge should witness firsthand how Congress itself is involved in this "buying of sheep" in Telangana.

According to KTR, Congress has engineered a culture of “Aaya Ram–Gaya Ram”. He argued that Congress has lost the moral authority to criticise party defection issues after absorbing 10 BRS legislators in Telangana.

"I say that if there’s the biggest goat purchaser in Telangana, it’s the Congress. I welcome Kharge ji to the goat Mandi of Telangana. Today, 10 of our BRS MLAs are joining your party, and your Chief Minister goes door-to-door putting Congress scarves on them… So, I would tell Kharge ji that if there’s the biggest goat purchaser in Indian history, it’s the Congress. It’s the Congress that introduced the 'Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram' culture in this country,” he said.

KTR termed Congress G.O.A.T of goat purchase and said that the culture began in Haryana during Indira Gandhi’s time and is still continuing.