A political debate hosted by a Telugu news channel, in which candidates were supposed to talk about their accomplishments and promises, ended up in physical violence. An angry BRS MLA rushed towards the BJP candidate and held him by his throat.
The open-stage debate by NTV took place in Quthbullapur constituency in Hyderabad, between BRS candidate and current MLA KP Vivekananda, BJP candidate Koona Srisailam Goud, and Congress representative Kolan Hanumanth Reddy, on October 25. Tensions escalated during the debate, resulting in a physical altercation between Srisailam Goud and Vivekananda.
At the beginning of the debate, Vivekanada answered questions fielded by the public, and then the debate continued between the three leaders. The audience, many of whom were actually political cadre, kept the energy high by raising slogans whenever their leaders spoke.
At one point, Srisailam Goud and Vivekananda started accusing each other of land grabbing. Srisailam replied to Vivekananda’s allegations, “Your father grabbed land, you grabbed land.” This seems to have angered Vivekananda, who rushed towards Srisailam and held him by his throat.
The journalists at the event rushed to separate the leaders, but soon the situation turned chaotic as the infuriated activists tried to break open the barricades and rush to the stage. They outnumbered the police and managed to reach the stage in large numbers. Some of them threw chairs at each other. The situation became normal only after a while.
Later at night, the BJP leader filed a complaint against MLA Vivekananda at Suraram Police station
An NTV reporter told TNM that the program was attended by at least 500 people and 30 police personnel were deployed at the venue. “The altercation began an hour after the program began. The police were able to disperse the crowd and everyone left the place. No one was injured.”
https://x.com/BJP4Telangana/status/1717180324415975522?s=20
Several BJP leaders condemned the incident and slammed the BRS, calling them a ‘party of goons’.