Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

TDP dharnas disrupt traffic

- Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

Venting anger: TDP leaders and activists protesting at Tiruchanur Circle on Chennai-Bangalore highway on Thursday.

TIRUPATI: As the indefinite fast launched by the TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu entered the seventh day on Thursday amid reports of his deteriorating health condition, the party cadres in league with their Left party colleagues queered the pitch of their agitation in Chittoor district - Naidu's home-ground.

The day was marked by ‘rasta rokos' on the highways at several places in the district which shares border with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, besides with other major towns of the State like Kadapa, Anantapur and Nellore.

Vehicular movement remained completely paralysed in the district on all the highways till noon with the irate party cadres putting up road-blocks and sitting on dharnas.

At most places, the demonstrators burnt the effigies of Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and amid heavy sloganeering denounced his alleged ‘negative mind-set' against Chandrababu Naidu and the farming community as a whole.

At Puthalpet on the Tirupati-Chittoor high way, angry cadres made a vain bid to set on fire a Vellore-bound APSRTC bus after smashing its wind-screens. The attempt was however foiled initially by the villagers and later by the police who rushed in and whisked away the miscreants sparking tension in its wake. Police also arrested demonstrators at Chittoor when they reportedly tried to obstruct the movement of shared-autos covering the mufussil areas around the district headquarters town.

In Tirupati, police had to rush in and douse the fire as irate demonstrators set on fire a flexi board of the Chief Minister, erected on the busy Tiruchanoor junction on the Chennai-Tirupati-Bangalore highway. The flexi boards were put up at the junction by the Congress supporters hailing the the Chief Minister's visit to Tirupati on Friday for the first time after assuming office.

Reports have come in about the TDP and the Left party cadres holding similar ‘rasta rokos' at Madanapalle, Palamaner, Bangarupalem, Piler, Chittoor, Srikalahasti, Puttur, Nagari and Sathyavedu condemning the anti-farmers attitude of the Kiran Kumar Reddy.

Senior party leader and Nagari MLA G. Muddukrishnama Naidu leading the demonstrations at Tirupati and Puttur slammed the Chief Minister for making light of Chandrababu's indefinite fast and said that it only smacks of his arrogance after getting pitch forked to the top slot in the dubious ‘sealed cover' politics of the Congress high command.

Among those who participated in the dharnas were Narasimha Yadav, R.C. Munikrishna, Sridhar Varma, Pushpavathi (all TDP), K. Kumar Reddy (district CPI-M secretary), P. Harinadha Reddy (district CPI secretary) besides their cadres.

Anantapur Staff Reporter adds: TDP leaders and workers, along with Left party activists, staged a ‘rail roko' agitation at Anantapur railway station by squatting on the railway track.

MLA Palle Raghunath Reddy and TD leader Mahalakshmi Sreenivas took part in the agitation. Later the TDP, CPI and CPI(M) workers participated in a ‘road roko' agitation at Tapovanam centre on the NH. For nearly half-an-hour, vehicular traffic came to a grinding halt. Long queues of heavy vehicles were seen stranded on the road and the general public were inconvenienced due to non-movement of vehicles.

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