Tirupati: Police foil bandh by detaining TDP leaders

Tirupati: Several TDP leaders were put under house arrest early in the morning on Wednesday to prevent them from participating in the party sponsored bandh.

The bandh call was given by the party high command in protest against the alleged attacks on party offices and leaders across the State by YSRCP cadres.

In their effort to foil the bandh, huge police force was deployed at various places in Chittoor district. Police kept several leaders including party presidents of Tirupati and Chittoor LS constituencies – G Narasimha Yadav and Pulivarthi Nani at Tirupati and Chandragiri respectively under house arrest. They also detained former Tirupati MLA M Sugunamma, former minister N Amaranatha Reddy, Challa Ramachandra Reddy, BL Sanjay, D Bhaskar Yadav, B Sudheer Reddy, JD Rajasekhar and many other leaders across the district at their residences.

With this, the bandh has failed to make any impact and there was no disruption to public activity. On the whole, RTC buses were plied normally as police did not allow anyone to stall the public transport. In Tirupati, corporator RC Muni Krishna tried to stage a dharna at Ambedkar statue but it was not allowed by the police and he was taken into custody. Telugu Yuvatha leaders staged a half-naked protest at NTR statue.

Later in the evening, talking to the media at her residence, former MLA Sugunamma condemned the house arrests which prevented them from participating peacefully in the bandh. She termed the house arrests as an undemocratic act. She said that the people of the State have been living with total insecurity and opined that the Central government should intervene to safeguard law and order in Andhra Pradesh.

Party's Tirupati LS constituency president Narasimha Yadav said that the attacks by ruling party cadres in the State reminded the situation in Bihar. He recalled that when they were protesting peacefully against the power tariff hike, YSRCP workers attacked them. He questioned the DGP whether he could not see the abusive language used by the Ministers. Yadav called for President's rule in the State in view of the deteriorating law and order situation.