Jana Sena long march in Visakhapatnam today

Vijayawada: Jana Sena Party is organising a long march to spotlight the sand scarcity problem in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan will participate in the long march along with party leaders. The main aim of the programme is to expose the lapses in the sand supply policy and failure of the government in sand supply.

The long march will begin at Telugu Talli statue at Maddilapalem Junction at 3 pm and will proceed towards Rama Talkies, Asilmetta, RTC Complex, GVMC Building and finally reach the Gandhi statue. There Pawan Kalyan will address the construction workers.

The parking facility is provided on Andhra University grounds and a huge crowd is expected from across the state. Already the leaders of Jana Sena party reached Visakhapatnam. The long march has assumed significance since there is serious sand shortage for construction and hardships of building workers rendering them without employment.

Interestingly, Pawan Kalyan invited all political parties, including TDP, BJP, CPI, CPM, Congress, BSP and Lok Satta. He directly called on the leaders of the political parties. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu extended his party support and announced that he would send a delegation to the programme.

The CPI, CPM and Congress have decided not to participate in the protest. However, they have shown their thumbs up to the long march. CPI state secretary K Ramakrishna, CPM state secretary P Madhu informed Pawan Kalyan that they would not attend the meeting since the Jana Sena invited the BJP to participate in the protest. They said the Left parties would not attend when the BJP is invited for the event.

Congress vice-president N Tulasi Reddy said the leadership has also taken a decision not to attend the long march as Pawan Kalyan did not respond to their similar invitation in the past.

On the other hand, the BJP leaders are also expressing different opinions on the long march. At first, BJP state president Kanna Lakshminarayana reacted positively to Pawan Kalyan's invitation. He also extended support and announced the party leaders' presence.

But BJP State vice-president S Vishnuvardhan Reddy reacted differently and said that they would conduct a separate protest in Vijayawada on November 4 on the sand problem. Later, the BJP did not make any announcement about whether the party leaders would attend the programme or not.

In spite of all these reactions, the Jana Sena is expecting that a huge crowd will attend the meeting. Meanwhile, Jana Sena leader T Bala Raja resigned to the party a day before the meeting.