VIJAYAWADA: Tension prevailed for a while at Gollapudi amid the Deeksha protest by former minister and Telugu Desam leader Devineni Umamaheswara Rao. Police swung into action and detained the TD leader and his supporters as YSRC men too came in strength to confront the TD leader.
Notably, state minister for civil supplies Kodali Venkateswara Rao alias Nani had challenged Umamaheswara Rao for a debate on the corruption and scams of the earlier TD government and on the TD election manifesto. Accepting the challenge, Uma tried to hold a protest Deeksha and challenged the ruling YSRC to stop him from the Deeksha.
The police imposed a ban order in the area under Section 144 and denied permission to TD leaders including Uma to hold the Deeksha.
Uma, wearing a mask and covering his face with a cap, came to Gollapudi and tried to garland the statue of NTR. Police stopped Uma when he was climbing the stairs to garland the statue while the TD cadres raised slogans.
Gannavaram MLA Vallbhaneni Vamsi who was distancing from TD rushed to Gollapudi with his supporters and started a retaliatory protest against Uma. The supporters of the two leaders engaged in a heated argument. Police immediately detained Uma and his supporters.
While the police tried to shift Uma to Ibrahimpatnam police station, the TD cadres resisted this. Then he was moved to Pamidimukkala police station and released from there in the evening.
Uma objected to the “foul” language used by Nani and said that such language was unbecoming of a minister. He tried to conduct only a peaceful Deeksha but the police restrained him on advice from the minister, he said and added that the TD would continue its fight against the “corruption” of the YSRC government.
TD chief Chandrababu Naidu and the party president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu objected to the forcible detention of Uma and condemned the attacks by the YSRC on TD cadres at Gollapudi.
Gannavaram MLA Vamsi said YSRC had accepted the challenge of Uma and hence they reached Gollapudi to speak out about the corruption and scams of the previous TD government. He stressed that the YSRC men did not come to create any ruckus but the TD leaders were bent on creating a law and order problem. “Chandrababu Naidu, Uma and other TD leaders have lost their mental balance,” he said.
