Published May 12, 2026 | 7:07 PM ⚊ Updated May 12, 2026 | 7:31 PM
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay.
Synopsis: BJP leaders, in private conversations, confess that the issue has not only damaged the party immensely but could also affect Bandi Sanjay’s future standing within the party. Notably, all BJP MPs from the state have maintained a stoic silence even as their colleague comes under attack.
If only Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay practised what he often preaches—the virtues of Lord Rama—he would not possibly have sunk himself into the deep hole he now finds himself in.
Lord Rama asked his own pious wife to undergo a trial by fire to prove her ‘purity’. Yet Bandi Sanjay, who made a political career out of chanting Jai Sriram, forgot dharma when it came to his own son.
His son, Sai Bageerath, was booked under the POCSO Act on 8 May following a complaint by the mother of a minor girl, who accused the 25-year-old of sexually exploiting her daughter on the false promise of marriage.
The first opportunity for Sanjay came when the girl’s family met him in April 2026.
As an elder and a statesman, he should have shown some remorse over the way his son maintained a relationship with a minor, even if one assumes it was consensual for some time before Bageerath allegedly abandoned her.
Instead, without even appearing conscious of the position he holds—one responsible for the protection and well-being of girls and women as Minister of State for Home—the girl’s family was reportedly threatened with dire consequences unless they put the relationship behind them.
Also Read: Union MoS Bandi Sanjay approaches Telangana High Court seeking interim bail for son in POCSO case
When the matter finally reached the police a few days ago, the Union Minister should have done three things.
First, he should have prioritised transparency, accountability and public trust over defensiveness, and avoided politicisation that could undermine his credibility.
Instead, he did exactly the opposite by resorting to a belligerent response, claiming the complaint was baseless and politically motivated.
Second, he should have said: “I am aware of the serious allegations against my son. As a father, I support him. As a public servant, I trust the legal system to establish facts impartially.”
And finally, but no less important, he should have asked his son to assist the special probe team ordered by the Telangana government. He should have publicly committed to non-interference, using his Home Ministry role to emphasise POCSO enforcement.
This could have countered accusations by Opposition parties that the accused was being shielded through BJP-Congress collusion.
If only he had followed dharma, Bandi Sanjay could have made his son sit in his car, taken him to the Director General of Police’s office and handed him over to the police with the instruction: “Act as per the evidence you have.”
Instead, followers of Bandi Sanjay unleashed social media influencers and handles that resorted to shaming the survivor, even to the extent of posting her pictures in gross violation of POCSO Act guidelines.
If events over the last two days are any indication, both the BJP and the Congress are facing severe backlash on social media, even as Opposition BRS working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) accused the mainstream media of falling into a “money trap” and blocking coverage of an issue involving the family of a Union Minister.
BJP leaders, in private conversations, confess that the issue has not only damaged the party immensely but could also affect Bandi Sanjay’s future standing within the party.
They also point out that Sanjay has gone too far in indulging in personal attacks against former chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao and KTR, even resorting to “body shaming” and commenting on their personal habits.
Yet he seems to have ignored his duty to discipline his own son, who was earlier caught on video assaulting students at a top university in Hyderabad and was embroiled in other controversies as well.
Notably, all BJP MPs from the state have maintained a stoic silence even as their colleague comes under attack.
“When he himself is caught in a personal crisis, there are not many within the party and outside willing to back him,” an insider said.
The incidents have also exposed internal rifts within the BJP, with many suspecting that Sanjay’s fellow BJP MPs have been “fully exploiting” the controversy to ensure that the Union Minister is sidelined within the party.
In the face of an aggressive attack by the BRS, the ruling Congress too has come in for sharp criticism for dilly-dallying over the arrest of the accused.
Even ardent Congress supporters have been posting on X and other social media platforms that they will “not support the Telangana Congress until Bageerath is brought to justice.”
At the same time, women ministers in the Telangana Congress government—Seethakka and Konda Surekha—have remained silent, and so have senior party leaders.
One minister, Ponnam Prabhakar, himself a BC leader like Bandi Sanjay, commented that the Union Minister should facilitate an impartial investigation and let the law take its course.
Lawyers point out that there was no need to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) in a case like this.
“The first step should have been to arrest Bageerath. The SIT is only meant to delay the process and give the accused time to protect himself somehow,” BRS leaders alleged.
Curiously, Telangana police said they had no knowledge of Bageerath’s whereabouts and were examining his call records.
This is the same force that often touts its supposed superiority in crime detection, mind you.
“This is perhaps the first instance in the country where a Union Minister’s son is absconding,” quipped KTR.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
