Tension prevailed in Chittoor town on Monday as the police were forced to detain several activists from the opposition party, YSRCP, in Andhra Pradesh as they staged a protest against the detention of Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy. The YSRCP legislator was picked up on Sunday night for protesting against the arrest of four party activists.
According to media reports, the incident began on Sunday evening after four YSRCP members allegedly assaulted two people who were conducting an election survey in Palaka town, which falls in Chandragiri constituency. The YSRCP men accused the duo of ‘deleting names of YSRCP sympathisers’. The duo then complained to the police that they were manhandled.
Based on a complaint, the police booked the four activists under relevant sections and shifted them to Chittoor for questioning, media reports stated.
Upon learning about the arrest, Bhaskar Reddy and his supporters gathered on one of the main roads of the town near the Police Training Centre (PTC) and created a massive traffic jam, following which he was taken into preventive custody and later shifted to the Satyavedu police station. The MLA’s detention only led to several more members of the YSRCP taking to the streets and being detained themselves.
Meanwhile, top YSRCP leadership also stepped in and met with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state and accused the police of detaining the MLA without reason.
With an Election Commission (EC) team currently in Andhra Pradesh to audit the state voter list, the YSRCP last week intensified its attack on the ruling TDP, claiming over 59 lakh fake voters had been added to the list at its behest.
Out of the total 3.69 crore names on state voter rolls, over 59 lakh (16%) are invalid or duplicate, the YSRCP said at a press conference and alleged that the TDP government was doing everything in its power to subvert democracy and steal the elections.
The party also released a detailed survey pointing out 59,18,631 voters under 12 different categories such as duplicate, illegal, invalid, bogus and demographically similar entries. It said the number of such voters was 52.7 lakh in September 2018.
The party further said that over 20 lakh people have a vote in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
With IANS inputs