Tirupati: To foil protest plans, cops house arrest TDP leaders

Tirupati: The proposed protests of TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu at Gandhi statues in Chittoor and Tirupati on Monday led to the house arrest of several party leaders in the district. Naidu decided to protest the atrocities of YSRCP leaders in the civic body polls in which they have been allegedly indulging in forcible withdrawals and intimidation of TDP candidates.

Party leaders were saying that when the candidates do not yield to these pressures, they have been hard hit economically. After the Sunday's incident in Tirupati in which a TDP worker's tea stall was forcibly removed by Municipal Corporation officials as his wife has not withdrawn from the contest, Naidu decided to visit the district on Monday to expose the ruling party's high-handedness in the poll process by staging dharna in Chittoor and Tirupati.

Following this, TDP Parliamentary presidents from Tirupati and Chittoor G Narasimha Yadav and Pulivarthi Nani have sought police permission. However, during late night, police denied permission to them citing Covid norms under which large congregations are not allowed. They also made it clear that when model code of conduct was in vogue any political programmes with 5,000 people could not be allowed.

Taking further steps, police house arrested several TDP leaders including former Minister N Amaranatha Reddy and MLC G Sreenivasulu at Palamaner, MLC BN Rajasimhulu and Pulivarthi Nani at Chittoor, G Narasimha Yadav and former MLA M Sugunamma in Tirupati along with other leaders in various places. Sugunamma was not allowed to go out to pay tributes to her husband and former MLA M Venkataramana on his birth anniversary.

However, Amarnath Reddy and Narasimha Yadav defied police restrictions and held sit-on protests on roads following which they were arrested and shifted to police stations.

Several party workers were also detained at Airport when they tried to meet Naidu and shifted to the police stations. TDP Tirupati parliamentary women's wing President C Usha flayed these arrests.

The ruling party has been trying to hijack the poll process just as they did in Panchayat elections. She appealed to the people to watch these developments and teach a lesson to YSRCP in the municipal elections.