YSR Cong Party On Farmers' Drive

The YSR Congress Party's mega drive of picketing District Collectorates, demanding a host of farmers' relief measures, was quite successful, although splattered with a couple of violent incidents.

On Monday, party leaders across the 3 regions of the state - Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema - led party workers, supporters, "fans", and even students in some places, to picket District Collectorates and stage dharnas.

Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late Y S Rajasekhar Reddy (after whom the party was named) and founder of the party led the protest in Chittoor. Jagan's mother Vijayamma led her supporters to the Kadapa Collectorate. Vijayamma also managed to dole out some self-conscious sound bytes to the media; she said she hoped the government would introduce measures to make seeds available to the farmers of the state. She also said that if YSR were alive, he would have made sure that the Jalayagnam project was completed.

Anantapur, Kurnool, Vizianagaram, Eluru, Guntur, Warangal, Karimnagar, Medak and Rangareddy all saw protestors taking to the District Collectorates waving YSR Congress Party flags. Everyone made the same speeches all over - that the current government is hopeless, that it doesn't care about farmers, and that it must wake up to farmers' woes soon.

However, the agitation at Warangal was marred by some violence. A YSR Congress Party jeep was on fire at Hanamkonda, while the driver of the jeep was out for lunch. Telangana activists from the Kakatiya University JAC are suspected to be the culprits. Flags and other paraphernelia were also reported to have been burnt.

The fire was put out, and some people were taken into custody by the police after a round of lathicharge there.

The Ranga Reddy district dharna was also marked by uproarious protests, with the police having had to arrest quite a few leaders, including women. They were taken to the Nampally Police Station.