Heavy police presence keeps Kodangal on edge

​Kodangal: Tucked away in the dusty lands of old Mahbubnagar district, Kodangal is a sleepy town of nearly 14,000 people. However, the Kodangal constituency from where young Congress leader A Revanth Reddy is contesting, looks like a fortress with heavy police presence, creating panic among locals. Police have set up check posts at all entry points of the constituency and at several places inside it. One can see a police patrol vehicle passing through town centre at an interval of every few minutes.

“Police force has been here since a month and more and more forces are coming here every day,” Abdul Raoof, a fruit vendor told The Hans India, in a low voice even as one more patrol vehicle passed by the town centre. “Everyone is worried that something untoward might happen during this election,” he said. The heavy police deployment assumes significance in the wake of Revanth Reddy’s statement that his life was in danger.

The firebrand Congress leader even knocked at the Hyderabad High Court seeking security. Revanth supporters, however, allege that the deployment of police was to create a fear psychosis among voters. Some also see it as a ploy to corner Revanth, a sharp critic of Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekar Rao, and cut funds flow to the constituency.

“More and more forces will be deployed here as election date comes closer. The KCR government will deploy the entire Telangana police force here,” said a supporter of Revanth sarcastically. Another supporter said that he never saw such a large police force in Kodangal. Devula Naik of Maddur mandal in the constituency said, “But it is very unlikely that the presence of police will scare voters.” However, Ramesh, a TRS supporter in Kosgi, said that police deployment was not to scare voters and not to cause trouble to Revanth Reddy, but was just a security measure and nothing else.