A live TV debate between Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) MLA KP Vivekananda and BJP’s Kuna Srisailam Goud turned violent when the former grabbed the BJP candidate by the throat on Wednesday.

Terming goondaism as a hallmark of KCR’s party, union minister and Telangana BJP president G Kishan Reddy shared the video on his X (formerly Twitter) platform alleging that the BRS MLA from Quthbullapur attacked the BJP candidate from the constituency as he was unable to answer the question posed by the latter.

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗥𝗦 – 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗺 BJP MLA candidate from Quthuballapur @KunaSrisailam attacked by BRS sitting MLA. It’s shocking when a contesting opposition candidate is attacked and scuffled in open public, imagine if BRS returns to power even common people will be attacked in same manner ? 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗮 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲,” he said on X.

Vivekanand attacking Goud by holding the latter’s throat is an act of timidity, Reddy said in a statement. He said police should book a case against the BRS MLA failing which the BJP would take up a legal battle.

KP Vivekananda is the sitting MLA from Quthbullapur assembly constituency while the BJP has fielded Kuna Srisailam Goud against Vivekananda.

The BJP has further demanded that the BRS MLA be disqualified from contesting the election and asked the Election Commission to take action against him.

Meanwhile, BRS spokesperson Sravan Dasoju alleged Goud made a reference to the BRS MLA’s father though both were supposed to maintain decency and decorum during the debate. “Both of them are supposed to have maintained decency, decorum,” and be restrained. Goud should not have driven the debate ‘attacking’ Vivekanand’s parents in the first place and the ruling party MLA should not have attacked his rival. “Both could have been sensible and realised the whole world is watching them,” Dasoju told PTI.

Assembly elections in Telangana will be held on November 30 and counting of votes will take place on December 3. Telangana is set to witness an intriguing triangular contest between the BRS, Congress, and BJP.