Hyderabad: Congress activists barged into the BJP's state office in Nampally on Tuesday and defaced. As the protesters were hurling eggs and stones, they were heard raising slogans against former BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, who recently passed controversial remarks on Priyanka Gandhi.
In the melee, BJP state general secretary Dr Kasam Venkateshwarlu and a Dalit activist were injured.
BJP workers retaliated by rushing towards Gandhi Bhavan, tearing banners stuck on the walls.
These attacks resulted in a traffic jam on the arterial Gandhi Bhavan and MJ Market Road.
Abids Police, along with Task Force personnel, rushed to the spot and took activists from both parties into custody.
Medak MP M. Raghunandan Rao said Bidhuri had expressed regret for his comments where he compares roads to the cheeks of Priyanka Gandhi. He asked Revanth Reddy and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi to take responsibility for the attack.
State BJP president and Union minister G. Kishan Reddy strongly condemned the Congress activists' attack. In a statement, Kishan Reddy stated that "the party strongly condemns the Congress' goondaism. It is unfortunate that the state has plunged into lawlessness under the Congress government, where goons, thugs, and violence are being given a free hand."
Goondaism has become the new norm under the Congress. Such violent attacks on our offices will not be tolerated at any cost, and I demand stringent action against these Congress goons." Kishan Reddy said.
Charging that the police stationed at the BJP office had remained silent during the incident, Kishan Reddy demanded that Hyderabad police commissioner C.V. Anand respond and take stringent action against the
attackers. "The police did not resist even after a number of BJP activists sustained serious injuries in the attack, carried out with sticks and stones," Kishan Reddy said.
Claiming that the attacks by Congress activists will not stop the BJP from carrying out its agitation till the Revanth Reddy government fulfilled all its promises, Kishan Reddy warned that the state would face a law and order situation in the state if the BJP activists reacted similarly.
Union minister of state for home Bandi Sanjay expressed strong anger over the incident. "If BJP workers decide, not even the foundations of Gandhi Bhavan or Congress offices will remain," he thundered.
"When ruling party workers take the law into their hands and attack with stones, what was the state government doing? Does the Congress want to encourage stone-pelting attacks," Sanjay asked and demanded the immediate arrest of Congress workers involved in the attack and legal action against them.
BJP politburo member Dr K. Laxman said that such acts of hooliganism would not scare BJP cadre.
Malkajgiri MP Etala Rajender, the party floor leader A Maheshwar Reddy and others condemned the action of Congress activists.
