KADAPA: CPI (M) and Congress members clashed at the `Praja Patham' gram sabha in Nagarajupet here on Tuesday after Leftist leaders alleged violation of protocol in allowing city Congress president T. Sivasankar on the dais.

CPI (M) leaders -- N. Ravisankar Reddy and K. Anjaneyulu -- picked up an argument with Kadapa Mayor P. Ravindranath Reddy and alleged that the Government programme was being conducted as a ruling party's programme. City Congress president T. Sivasankar questioned the propriety of the Left party members in questioning them. Incidentally, Telugu Desam Party's municipal corporator Sesha Sailaja's husband Venkatasubbaiah, a former assistant public prosecutor, presided over the meeting in her absence. A comment made by Mr. Sivasankar who tried to defend his position enraged CPI (M) members who demanded that he step down from the dais.

Congress MLC Shaik Hussain advised CPI (M) members to keep aside their `representation mela'.

As CPI (M) and Congress sympathisers jostled, Kadapa West Circle Inspector V. Narayanaswamy Reddy pacified them and took the CPI (M) members out of the venue and the programme ended abruptly.

Congress charge

Meanwhile, Congress leaders charged the CPI (M) members with deliberately obstructing the `Praja Patham' meeting and warned that people would teach them a lesson. CPI (M) members barged into the gram sabha and behaved in an undemocratic manner, Mr. Ravindranath Reddy, Mr. Shaik Hussain, Deputy Mayor K. Nabi Rasool and Mr. Sivasankar alleged at a press conference later.

The Leftists ought to have drawn the Mayor's attention to city Congress president's presence on the dais, but disrupting a meeting was improper, they said. Telugu Desam Party leader G. Lakshmi Reddy was seated on the dais in `Praja Patham' gram sabha at Alamkhanpalle as he belonged to the area, they stated. The Mayor urged officials to strictly follow protocol rules in `Praja Patham' meetings hereafter.

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