VIJAYAWADA: Leader of the Opposition and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and his party MLAs were taken into preventive custody late on Monday night when they tried to take out a padayatra from the Assembly to Mandadam village to join the farmers’ protest camp.
Soon after the TDP MLAs were suspended from the House and the marshals lifted them out, Naidu staged a sit-in protest in the Assembly lobbies and then on the steps of the AP Legislature. The TDP MLAs were suspended when they disrupted Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s speech seeking more time for their leader to speak.
Later, Naidu along with the party leaders planned to leave for Mandadam to extend solidarity to the protesting farmers and join their protest for the night. However, with prohibitory orders in force, police stopped the padayatra of the TDP leaders.
The police arrested them and shifted them into a bus. The police reportedly took the vehicle through several villages before shifting Naidu to the Mangalagiri police station. Naidu was later released and reached his residence a little after midnight.