Pre-poll clashes between political parties ring alarm bells

Hyderabad: Telangana is touted to be a peaceful state and had never witnessed any pre- poll violence or even skirmishes since the formation of the state.

But with just 19 days left for the polling day clashes between political groups have begun causing concern as to what would be the law and order situation as the ‘D’ day draws closer.

Telangana police is hi-tech police and has the best command control centre. But still clashes during nominations between activists of different political parties on Thursday and Friday were causing concern. On Thursday Congress and BRS workers in Ibrahimpatnam clashed with each other while filing of nominations. On Friday, there was high tension at the office of returning officer Patancheruvu when candidates of all major parties including Congress and BJP landed there at the same time to file nominations.

There was confusion as both sides shouted slogans and sat on dharna on the road. Police team led by DSP Purshottam Reddy swung into action and prevented any untoward incident.

Police said that supporters of BJP ticket aspirant Rajeshwar Rao Deshpande staged a dharna in front of the office of the Returning Officer. As Deshpande tried to self-immolate in front of the office, his supporters clashed with supporters of P Raju of BJP.

Supporters of Deshpande ransacked district BJP office. Tension prevailed in Sangareddy town as police resorted to lathi charge to quell the mobs and imposed section 144 in Sangareddy town. The big question is how did police allow different groups to come to RO office at same time. Was there lack of coordination between the police, the political parties and the election authorities? This also rings alarm bells as the campaign is now in its last leg and what if such incidents recur either during campaign or on day of polling? May be the Election Commission of India has to take serious note of these two incidents and make necessary security arrangements if necessary by deploying central forces.