TD activists jostle with police in Dwaraka Tirumala,13 protesters taken into custody

KAKINADA: Telugu Desam activists jostled with police while undertaking a padayatra on Friday in Dwaraka Tirumala town of Eluru district protesting against the arrest of Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu.

A police team armed with lathis, led by Dwaraka Tirumala circle inspector P. Venkateswara Rao, tried to stop the TD workers. This led to arguments between the police and TD leaders, who maintained that they were protesting peacefully. The inspector informed them that no permission had been granted to them to take out the padayatra.

This led to jostling in which the circle inspector fell over. Seeing this, additional police rushed and dispersed the protesters. Police forcefully dragged some of the TD activists into police jeeps and took them into custody.

Jana Sena workers also joined the protest, expressing their solidarity with Chandrababu Naidu.

Dwaraka Tirumala sub-inspector T. Sudhir said that 13 TD activists have been taken into custody in the incident.

Telugu Desam leaders and workers also registered their protests at several places in erstwhile East and West Godavari districts on Friday over the arrest and remand of their party chief Chandrababu Naidu.

In Ramachandrapuram, the TD activists led by the former deputy chairman of the Legislative Council Reddy Subrahmanyam observed relay fasts.

Jana Sena Ramachandrapuram constituency in-charge P. Chandrasekhar joined this stir in solidarity. Chandrasekhar said their party chief Pawan Kalyan had decided to ally with TD in the latter’s hour of need. JS workers will support the protest programmes organised by the Telugu Desam.

Reddy Subrahmanyam said Jana Sena and TD will free the state from the clutches of YSRC.