Tension At Assembly As Congress Leaders Held All Over

Though the TRS government foiled the Congress' Chalo Assembly rally using the police, tension prevailed for some time on Friday when the police resorted to the arrests of Congress leaders everywhere.

Several Congress leaders along with party activists reached Gandhi Bhavan from across the state for the rally in support of farmers, and started towards the Assembly demanding that the state government solve the problems of the farmers. The police, stationed outside Gandhi Bhavan, quickly obstructed the rally, and detained the leaders and activists.

The police first held former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, former MLA D Sudhir Reddy and former whip Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy. The party activists then raised slogans against the TRS government and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. The police arrested many of them, too, and shifted all of them to the Goshamahal Police Station.

The police also arrested TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, MLA D K Aruna, and former ministers Sabitha Indra Reddy and Sunitha Laxma Reddy, and shifted them to Madannapet Police Station. After being releasing, Uttam Kumar Reddy came to the Assembly but the police once again arrested him and shifted him to the Gandhi Nagar Police Station.

The police went to considerable pains to arrest Renuka Chowdary who entered into an argument with them. She pushed the police personnel when they tried to arrest her. The cops then brought women police in huge numbers and had her arrested. Chowdary offered stiff resistance even when the women police tried to shift her to a police van. She was shifted to the Gandhi Nagar Police Station.

The police also arrested MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy and MLA T Rammohan Reddy, and shifted them to the Ramgopalpet Police Station. The police placed former MLA Vishnuvardhan Reddy under house arrest.

Congress leaders K Jana Reddy, Shabbir Ali, D Damodhar Reddy, Marri Shashidhar Reddy, Balaram Naik and Rapolu Ananda Bhasker, and several Youth Congress and NSUI activists were also among those arrested during the Chalo Assembly protest. However, the police released all the Congress leaders later.